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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2711-0.txt b/2711-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d5966a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/2711-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3545 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Phyllis of the Sierras, by Bret Harte + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Phyllis of the Sierras + +Author: Bret Harte + +Release Date: May 25, 2006 [EBook #2711] +Last Updated: March 5, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PHYLLIS OF THE SIERRAS *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson + + + + + +A PHYLLIS OF THE SIERRAS + + +By Bret Harte + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +Where the great highway of the Sierras nears the summit, and the pines +begin to show sterile reaches of rock and waste in their drawn-up files, +there are signs of occasional departures from the main road, as if the +weary traveller had at times succumbed to the long ascent, and turned +aside for rest and breath again. The tired eyes of many a dusty +passenger on the old overland coach have gazed wistfully on those sylvan +openings, and imagined recesses of primeval shade and virgin wilderness +in their dim perspectives. Had he descended, however, and followed one +of these diverging paths, he would have come upon some rude wagon track, +or “logslide,” leading from a clearing on the slope, or the ominous +saw-mill, half hidden in the forest it was slowly decimating. The +woodland hush might have been broken by the sound of water passing over +some unseen dam in the hollow, or the hiss of escaping steam and throb +of an invisible engine in the covert. + +Such, at least, was the experience of a young fellow of five-and-twenty, +who, knapsack on back and stick in hand, had turned aside from the +highway and entered the woods one pleasant afternoon in July. But he +was evidently a deliberate pedestrian, and not a recent deposit of +the proceeding stage-coach; and although his stout walking-shoes were +covered with dust, he had neither the habitual slouch and slovenliness +of the tramp, nor the hurried fatigue and growing negligence of an +involuntary wayfarer. His clothes, which were strong and serviceable, +were better fitted for their present usage than the ordinary garments +of the Californian travellers, which were too apt to be either above or +below their requirements. But perhaps the stranger's greatest claim to +originality was the absence of any weapon in his equipment. He carried +neither rifle nor gun in his hand, and his narrow leathern belt was +empty of either knife or revolver. + +A half-mile from the main road, which seemed to him to have dropped out +of sight the moment he had left it, he came upon a half-cleared area, +where the hastily-cut stumps of pines, of irregular height, bore an odd +resemblance to the broken columns of some vast and ruined temple. A few +fallen shafts, denuded of their bark and tessellated branches, sawn into +symmetrical cylinders, lay beside the stumps, and lent themselves to the +illusion. But the freshly-cut chips, so damp that they still clung in +layers to each other as they had fallen from the axe, and the stumps +themselves, still wet and viscous from their drained life-blood, were +redolent of an odor of youth and freshness. + +The young man seated himself on one of the logs and deeply inhaled the +sharp balsamic fragrance--albeit with a slight cough and a later hurried +respiration. This, and a certain drawn look about his upper lip, +seemed to indicate, in spite of his strength and color, some pulmonary +weakness. He, however, rose after a moment's rest with undiminished +energy and cheerfulness, readjusted his knapsack, and began to lightly +pick his way across the fallen timber. A few paces on, the muffled whir +of machinery became more audible, with the lazy, monotonous command +of “Gee thar,” from some unseen ox-driver. Presently, the slow, +deliberately-swaying heads of a team of oxen emerged from the bushes, +followed by the clanking chain of the “skids” of sawn planks, which they +were ponderously dragging with that ostentatious submissiveness peculiar +to their species. They had nearly passed him when there was a sudden +hitch in the procession. From where he stood he could see that a +projecting plank had struck a pile of chips and become partly imbedded +in it. To run to the obstruction and, with a few dexterous strokes and +the leverage of his stout stick, dislodge the plank was the work not +only of the moment but of an evidently energetic hand. The teamster +looked back and merely nodded his appreciation, and with a “Gee up! Out +of that, now!” the skids moved on. + +“Much obliged, there!” said a hearty voice, as if supplementing the +teamster's imperfect acknowledgment. + +The stranger looked up. The voice came from the open, sashless, +shutterless window of a rude building--a mere shell of boards and beams +half hidden in the still leafy covert before him. He had completely +overlooked it in his approach, even as he had ignored the nearer +throbbing of the machinery, which was so violent as to impart a decided +tremor to the slight edifice, and to shake the speaker so strongly that +he was obliged while speaking to steady himself by the sashless frame +of the window at which he stood. He had a face of good-natured and alert +intelligence, a master's independence and authority of manner, in spite +of his blue jean overalls and flannel shirt. + +“Don't mention it,” said the stranger, smiling with equal but more +deliberate good-humor. Then, seeing that his interlocutor still +lingered a hospitable moment in spite of his quick eyes and the jarring +impatience of the machinery, he added hesitatingly, “I fancy I've +wandered off the track a bit. Do you know a Mr. Bradley--somewhere +here?” + +The stranger's hesitation seemed to be more from some habitual +conscientiousness of statement than awkwardness. The man in the window +replied, “I'm Bradley.” + +“Ah! Thank you: I've a letter for you--somewhere. Here it is.” He +produced a note from his breast-pocket. Bradley stooped to a sitting +posture in the window. “Pitch it up.” It was thrown and caught cleverly. +Bradley opened it, read it hastily, smiled and nodded, glanced behind +him as if to implore further delay from the impatient machinery, leaned +perilously from the window, and said,-- + +“Look here! Do you see that silver-fir straight ahead?” + +“Yes.” + +“A little to the left there's a trail. Follow it and skirt along the +edge of the canyon until you see my house. Ask for my wife--that's Mrs. +Bradley--and give her your letter. Stop!” He drew a carpenter's pencil +from his pocket, scrawled two or three words across the open sheet +and tossed it back to the stranger. “See you at tea! Excuse me--Mr. +Mainwaring--we're short-handed--and--the engine--” But here he +disappeared suddenly. + +Without glancing at the note again, the stranger quietly replaced it +in his pocket, and struck out across the fallen trunks towards the +silver-fir. He quickly found the trail indicated by Bradley, although it +was faint and apparently worn by a single pair of feet as a shorter and +private cut from some more travelled path. It was well for the stranger +that he had a keen eye or he would have lost it; it was equally +fortunate that he had a mountaineering instinct, for a sudden profound +deepening of the blue mist seen dimly through the leaves before him +caused him to slacken his steps. The trail bent abruptly to the right; +a gulf fully two thousand feet deep was at his feet! It was the Great +Canyon. + +At the first glance it seemed so narrow that a rifle-shot could have +crossed its tranquil depths; but a second look at the comparative size +of the trees on the opposite mountain convinced him of his error. A +nearer survey of the abyss also showed him that instead of its walls +being perpendicular they were made of successive ledges or terraces to +the valley below. Yet the air was so still, and the outlines so clearly +cut, that they might have been only the reflections of the mountains +around him cast upon the placid mirror of a lake. The spectacle arrested +him, as it arrested all men, by some occult power beyond the mere +attraction of beauty or magnitude; even the teamster never passed +it without the tribute of a stone or broken twig tossed into its +immeasurable profundity. + +Reluctantly leaving the spot, the stranger turned with the trail that +now began to skirt its edge. This was no easy matter, as the undergrowth +was very thick, and the foliage dense to the perilous brink of the +precipice. He walked on, however, wondering why Bradley had chosen so +circuitous and dangerous a route to his house, which naturally would +be some distance back from the canyon. At the end of ten minutes' +struggling through the “brush,” the trail became vague, and, to all +appearances, ended. Had he arrived? The thicket was as dense as before; +through the interstices of leaf and spray he could see the blue void of +the canyon at his side, and he even fancied that the foliage ahead of +him was more symmetrical and less irregular, and was touched here and +there with faint bits of color. To complete his utter mystification, +a woman's voice, very fresh, very youthful, and by no means unmusical, +rose apparently from the circumambient air. He looked hurriedly to the +right and left, and even hopelessly into the trees above him. + +“Yes,” said the voice, as if renewing a suspended conversation, “it +was too funny for anything. There were the two Missouri girls from +Skinner's, with their auburn hair ringleted, my dear, like the old +'Books of Beauty'--in white frocks and sashes of an unripe greenish +yellow, that puckered up your mouth like persimmons. One of them was +speechless from good behavior, and the other--well! the other was +so energetic she called out the figures before the fiddler did, and +shrieked to my vis-a-vis to dance up to the entire stranger--meaning ME, +if you please.” + +The voice appeared to come from the foliage that overhung the canyon, +and the stranger even fancied he could detect through the shimmering +leafy veil something that moved monotonously to and fro. Mystified and +impatient, he made a hurried stride forward, his foot struck a wooden +step, and the next moment the mystery was made clear. He had almost +stumbled upon the end of a long veranda that projected over the abyss +before a low, modern dwelling, till then invisible, nestling on its +very brink. The symmetrically-trimmed foliage he had noticed were the +luxuriant Madeira vines that hid the rude pillars of the veranda; the +moving object was a rocking-chair, with its back towards the intruder, +that disclosed only the brown hair above, and the white skirts and small +slippered feet below, of a seated female figure. In the mean time, a +second voice from the interior of the house had replied to the figure in +the chair, who was evidently the first speaker:-- + +“It must have been very funny; but as long as Jim is always bringing +somebody over from the mill, I don't see how I can go to those places. +You were lucky, my dear, to escape from the new Division Superintendent +last night; he was insufferable to Jim with his talk of his friend the +San Francisco millionaire, and to me with his cheap society airs. I do +hate a provincial fine gentleman.” + +The situation was becoming embarrassing to the intruder. At the +apparition of the woman, the unaffected and simple directness he had +previously shown in his equally abrupt contact with Bradley had fled +utterly; confused by the awkwardness of his arrival, and shocked at the +idea of overhearing a private conversation, he stepped hurriedly on the +veranda. + +“Well? go on!” said the second voice impatiently. “Well, who else was +there? WHAT did you say? I don't hear you. What's the matter?” + +The seated figure had risen from her chair, and turned a young and +pretty face somewhat superciliously towards the stranger, as she said in +a low tone to her unseen auditor, “Hush! there is somebody here.” + +The young man came forward with an awkwardness that was more boyish than +rustic. His embarrassment was not lessened by the simultaneous entrance +from the open door of a second woman, apparently as young as and +prettier than the first. + +“I trust you'll excuse me for--for--being so wretchedly stupid,” he +stammered, “but I really thought, you know, that--that--I was following +the trail to--to--the front of the house, when I stumbled in--in here.” + +Long before he had finished, both women, by some simple feminine +intuition, were relieved and even prepossessed by his voice and manner. +They smiled graciously. The later-comer pointed to the empty chair. But +with his habit of pertinacious conscientiousness the stranger continued, +“It was regularly stupid, wasn't it?--and I ought to have known better. +I should have turned back and gone away when I found out what an ass I +was likely to be, but I was--afraid--you know, of alarming you by the +noise.” + +“Won't you sit down?” said the second lady, pleasantly. + +“Oh, thanks! I've a letter here--I”--he transferred his stick and hat +to his left hand as he felt in his breast-pocket with his right. But the +action was so awkward that the stick dropped on the veranda. Both women +made a movement to restore it to its embarrassed owner, who, however, +quickly anticipated them. “Pray don't mind it,” he continued, with +accelerated breath and heightened color. “Ah, here's the letter!” He +produced the note Bradley had returned to him. “It's mine, in +fact--that is, I brought it to Mr. Bradley. He said I was to give it +to--to--to--Mrs. Bradley.” He paused, glancing embarrassedly from the +one to the other. + +“I'm Mrs. Bradley,” said the prettiest one, with a laugh. He handed her +the letter. It ran as follows:-- + +“DEAR BRADLEY--Put Mr. Mainwaring through as far as he wants to go, or +hang him up at The Lookout, just as he likes. The Bank's behind him, and +his hat's chalked all over the Road; but he don't care much about being +on velvet. That ain't his style--and you'll like him. He's somebody's +son in England. B.” + +Mrs. Bradley glanced simply at the first sentence. “Pray sit down, Mr. +Mainwaring,” she said gently; “or, rather, let me first introduce my +cousin--Miss Macy.” + +“Thanks,” said Mainwaring, with a bow to Miss Macy, “but +I--I--I--think,” he added conscientiously, “you did not notice that your +husband had written something across the paper.” + +Mrs. Bradley smiled, and glanced at her husband's indorsement--“All +right. Wade in.” “It's nothing but Jim's slang,” she said, with a laugh +and a slightly heightened color. “He ought not to have sent you by that +short cut; it's a bother, and even dangerous for a stranger. If you had +come directly to US by the road, without making your first call at +the mill,” she added, with a touch of coquetry, “you would have had a +pleasanter walk, and seen US sooner. I suppose, however, you got off the +stage at the mill?” + +“I was not on the coach,” said Mainwaring, unfastening the strap of his +knapsack. “I walked over from Lone Pine Flat.” + +“Walked!” echoed both women in simultaneous astonishment. + +“Yes,” returned Mainwaring simply, laying aside his burden and taking +the proffered seat. “It's a very fine bit of country.” + +“Why, it's fifteen miles,” said Mrs. Bradley, glancing horror-stricken +at her cousin. “How dreadful! And to think Jim could have sent you a +horse to Lone Pine. Why, you must be dead!” + +“Thanks, I'm all right! I rather enjoyed it, you know.” + +“But,” said Miss Macy, glancing wonderingly at his knapsack, “you must +want something, a change--or some refreshment--after fifteen miles.” + +“Pray don't disturb yourself,” said Mainwaring, rising hastily, but not +quickly enough to prevent the young girl from slipping past him into the +house, whence she rapidly returned with a decanter and glasses. + +“Perhaps Mr. Mainwaring would prefer to go into Jim's room and wash his +hands and put on a pair of slippers?” said Mrs. Bradley, with gentle +concern. + +“Thanks, no. I really am not tired. I sent some luggage yesterday by the +coach to the Summit Hotel,” he said, observing the women's eyes still +fixed upon his knapsack. “I dare say I can get them if I want them. +I've got a change here,” he continued, lifting the knapsack as if with a +sudden sense of its incongruity with its surroundings, and depositing it +on the end of the veranda. + +“Do let it remain where it is,” said Mrs. Bradley, greatly amused, “and +pray sit still and take some refreshment. You'll make yourself ill +after your exertions,” she added, with a charming assumption of matronly +solicitude. + +“But I'm not at all deserving of your sympathy,” said Mainwaring, with +a laugh. “I'm awfully fond of walking, and my usual constitutional isn't +much under this.” + +“Perhaps you were stronger than you are now,” said Mrs. Bradley, gazing +at him with a frank curiosity that, however, brought a faint deepening +of color to his cheek. + +“I dare say you're right,” he said suddenly, with an apologetic smile. +“I quite forgot that I'm a sort of an invalid, you know, travelling +for my health. I'm not very strong here,” he added, lightly tapping +his chest, that now, relieved of the bands of his knapsack, appeared +somewhat thin and hollow in spite of his broad shoulders. His voice, +too, had become less clear and distinct. + +Mrs. Bradley, who was still watching him, here rose potentially. “You +ought to take more care of yourself,” she said. “You should begin by +eating this biscuit, drinking that glass of whiskey, and making yourself +more comfortable in Jim's room until we can get the spare room fixed a +little.” + +“But I am not to be sent to bed--am I?” asked Mainwaring, in half-real, +half-amused consternation. + +“I'm not so sure of that,” said Mrs. Bradley, with playful precision. +“But for the present we'll let you off with a good wash and a nap +afterwards in that rocking-chair, while my cousin and I make some +little domestic preparations. You see,” she added with a certain proud +humility, “we've got only one servant--a Chinaman, and there are many +things we can't leave to him.” + +The color again rose in Mainwaring's cheek, but he had tact enough to +reflect that any protest or hesitation on his part at that moment would +only increase the difficulties of his gentle entertainers. He allowed +himself to be ushered into the house by Mrs. Bradley, and shown to her +husband's room, without perceiving that Miss Macy had availed herself of +his absence to run to the end of the veranda, mischievously try to +lift the discarded knapsack to her own pretty shoulder, but, failing, +heroically stagger with it into the passage and softly deposit it at his +door. This done, she pantingly rejoined her cousin in the kitchen. + +“Well,” said Mrs. Bradley, emphatically. “DID you ever? Walking fifteen +miles for pleasure--and with such lungs!” + +“And that knapsack!” added Louise Macy, pointing to the mark in her +little palm where the strap had imbedded itself in the soft flesh. + +“He's nice, though; isn't he?” said Mrs. Bradley, tentatively. + +“Yes,” said Miss Macy, “he isn't, certainly, one of those provincial +fine gentlemen you object to. But DID you see his shoes? I suppose they +make the miles go quickly, or seem to measure less by comparison.” + +“They're probably more serviceable than those high-heeled things that +Captain Greyson hops about in.” + +“But the Captain always rides--and rides very well--you know,” said +Louise, reflectively. There was a moment's pause. + +“I suppose Jim will tell us all about him,” said Mrs. Bradley, +dismissing the subject, as she turned her sleeves back over her white +arms, preparatory to grappling certain culinary difficulties. + +“Jim,” observed Miss Macy, shortly, “in my opinion, knows nothing more +than his note says. That's like Jim.” + +“There's nothing more to know, really,” said Mrs. Bradley, with a +superior air. “He's undoubtedly the son of some Englishman of fortune, +sent out here for his health.” + +“Hush!” + +Miss Macy had heard a step in the passage. It halted at last, half +irresolutely, before the open door of the kitchen, and the stranger +appeared with an embarrassed air. + +But in his brief absence he seemed to have completely groomed himself, +and stood there, the impersonation of close-cropped, clean, and +wholesome English young manhood. The two women appreciated it with +cat-like fastidiousness. + +“I beg your pardon; but really you're going to let a fellow do something +for you,” he said, “just to keep him from looking like a fool. I really +can do no end of things, you know, if you'll try me. I've done some +camping-out, and can cook as well as the next man.” + +The two women made a movement of smiling remonstrance, half coquettish, +and half superior, until Mrs. Bradley, becoming conscious of her bare +arms and the stranger's wandering eyes, colored faintly, and said with +more decision:-- + +“Certainly not. You'd only be in the way. Besides, you need rest more +than we do. Put yourself in the rocking-chair in the veranda, and go to +sleep until Mr. Bradley comes.” + +Mainwaring saw that she was serious, and withdrew, a little ashamed at +his familiarity into which his boyishness had betrayed him. But he had +scarcely seated himself in the rocking-chair before Miss Macy appeared, +carrying with both hands a large tin basin of unshelled peas. + +“There,” she said pantingly, placing her burden in his lap, “if you +really want to help, there's something to do that isn't very fatiguing. +You may shell these peas.” + +“SHELL them--I beg pardon, but how?” he asked, with smiling earnestness. + +“How? Why, I'll show you--look.” + +She frankly stepped beside him, so close that her full-skirted dress +half encompassed him and the basin in a delicious confusion, and, +leaning over his lap, with her left hand picked up a pea-cod, which, +with a single movement of her charming little right thumb, she broke at +the end, and stripped the green shallow of its tiny treasures. + +He watched her with smiling eyes; her own, looking down on him, were +very bright and luminous. “There; that's easy enough,” she said, and +turned away. + +“But--one moment, Miss--Miss--?” + +“Macy,” said louise. + +“Where am I to put the shells?” + +“Oh! throw them down there--there's room enough.” + +She was pointing to the canyon below. The veranda actually projected +over its brink, and seemed to hang in mid air above it. Mainwaring +almost mechanically threw his arm out to catch the incautious girl, who +had stepped heedlessly to its extreme edge. + +“How odd! Don't you find it rather dangerous here?” he could not help +saying. “I mean--you might have had a railing that wouldn't intercept +the view and yet be safe?” + +“It's a fancy of Mr. Bradley's,” returned the young girl carelessly. +“It's all like this. The house was built on a ledge against the side of +the precipice, and the road suddenly drops down to it.” + +“It's tremendously pretty, all the same, you know,” said the young man +thoughtfully, gazing, however, at the girl's rounded chin above him. + +“Yes,” she replied curtly. “But this isn't working. I must go back to +Jenny. You can shell the peas until Mr. Bradley comes home. He won't be +long.” + +She turned away, and re-entered the house. Without knowing why, he +thought her withdrawal abrupt, and he was again feeling his ready color +rise with the suspicion of either having been betrayed by the young +girl's innocent fearlessness into some unpardonable familiarity, which +she had quietly resented, or of feeling an ease and freedom in the +company of these two women that were inconsistent with respect, and +should be restrained. + +He, however, began to apply himself to the task given to him with his +usual conscientiousness of duty, and presently acquired a certain manual +dexterity in the operation. It was “good fun” to throw the cast-off +husks into the mighty unfathomable void before him, and watch them +linger with suspended gravity in mid air for a moment--apparently +motionless--until they either lost themselves, a mere vanishing black +spot in the thin ether, or slid suddenly at a sharp angle into unknown +shadow. How deuced odd for him to be sitting here in this fashion! It +would be something to talk of hereafter, and yet,--he stopped--it was +not at all in the line of that characteristic adventure, uncivilized +novelty, and barbarous freedom which for the last month he had sought +and experienced. It was not at all like his meeting with the grizzly +last week while wandering in a lonely canyon; not a bit in the line of +his chance acquaintance with that notorious ruffian, Spanish Jack, or +his witnessing with his own eyes that actual lynching affair at Angels. +No! Nor was it at all characteristic, according to his previous ideas of +frontier rural seclusion--as for instance the Pike County cabin of the +family where he stayed one night, and where the handsome daughter asked +him what his Christian name was. No! These two young women were very +unlike her; they seemed really quite the equals of his family and +friends in England,--perhaps more attractive,--and yet, yes, it was +this very attractiveness that alarmed his inbred social conservatism +regarding women. With a man it was very different; that alert, active, +intelligent husband, instinct with the throbbing life of his saw-mill, +creator and worker in one, challenged his unqualified trust and +admiration. + +He had become conscious for the last minute or two of thinking rapidly +and becoming feverishly excited; of breathing with greater difficulty, +and a renewed tendency to cough. The tendency increased until he +instinctively put aside the pan from his lap and half rose. But even +that slight exertion brought on an accession of coughing. He put his +handkerchief to his lips, partly to keep the sound from disturbing the +women in the kitchen, partly because of a certain significant taste +in his mouth which he unpleasantly remembered. When he removed the +handkerchief it was, as he expected, spotted with blood. He turned +quickly and re-entered the house softly, regaining the bedroom without +attracting attention. An increasing faintness here obliged him to lie +down on the bed until it should pass. + +Everything was quiet. He hoped they would not discover his absence from +the veranda until he was better; it was deucedly awkward that he should +have had this attack just now--and after he had made so light of his +previous exertions. They would think him an effeminate fraud, these two +bright, active women and that alert, energetic man. A faint color came +into his cheek at the idea, and an uneasy sense that he had been in some +way foolishly imprudent about his health. Again, they might be alarmed +at missing him from the veranda; perhaps he had better have remained +there; perhaps he ought to tell them that he had concluded to take their +advice and lie down. He tried to rise, but the deep blue chasm before +the window seemed to be swelling up to meet him, the bed slowly sinking +into its oblivious profundity. He knew no more. + +He came to with the smell and taste of some powerful volatile spirit, +and the vague vision of Mr. Bradley still standing at the window of +the mill and vibrating with the machinery; this changed presently to a +pleasant lassitude and lazy curiosity as he perceived Mr. Bradley smile +and apparently slip from the window of the mill to his bedside. “You're +all right now,” said Bradley, cheerfully. + +He was feeling Mainwaring's pulse. Had he really been ill and was +Bradley a doctor? + +Bradley evidently saw what was passing in his mind. “Don't be alarmed,” + he said gayly. “I'm not a doctor, but I practise a little medicine and +surgery on account of the men at the mill, and accidents, you know. +You're all right now; you've lost a little blood: but in a couple of +weeks in this air we'll have that tubercle healed, and you'll be as +right as a trivet.” + +“In a couple of weeks!” echoed Mainwaring, in faint astonishment. “Why, +I leave here to-morrow.” + +“You'll do nothing of the kind” said Mrs. Bradley, with smiling +peremptoriness, suddenly slipping out from behind her husband. +“Everything is all perfectly arranged. Jim has sent off messengers to +your friends, so that if you can't come to them, they can come to you. +You see you can't help yourself! If you WILL walk fifteen miles with +such lungs, and then frighten people to death, you must abide by the +consequences.” + +“You see the old lady has fixed you,” said Bradley, smiling; “and she's +the master here. Come, Mainwaring, you can send any other message you +like, and have who and what you want here; but HERE you must stop for a +while.” + +“But did I frighten you really?” stammered Mainwaring, faintly, to Mrs. +Bradley. + +“Frighten us!” said Mrs. Bradley. “Well, look there!” + +She pointed to the window, which commanded a view of the veranda. Miss +Macy had dropped into the vacant chair, with her little feet stretched +out before her, her cheeks burning with heat and fire, her eyes partly +closed, her straw hat hanging by a ribbon round her neck, her brown +hair clinging to her ears and forehead in damp tendrils, and an enormous +palm-leaf fan in each hand violently playing upon this charming picture +of exhaustion and abandonment. + +“She came tearing down to the mill, bare-backed on our half-broken +mustang, about half an hour ago, to call me 'to help you,'” explained +Bradley. “Heaven knows how she managed to do it!” + + + + +CHAPER II. + + +The medication of the woods was not overestimated by Bradley. There was +surely some occult healing property in that vast reservoir of balmy and +resinous odors over which The Lookout beetled and clung, and from which +at times the pure exhalations of the terraced valley seemed to rise. +Under its remedial influence and a conscientious adherence to the rules +of absolute rest and repose laid down for him, Mainwaring had no return +of the hemorrhage. The nearest professional medical authority, hastily +summoned, saw no reason for changing or for supplementing Bradley's +intelligent and simple treatment, although astounded that the patient +had been under no more radical or systematic cure than travel and +exercise. The women especially were amazed that Mainwaring had taken +“nothing for it,” in their habitual experience of an unfettered +pill-and-elixir-consuming democracy. In their knowledge of the thousand +“panaceas” that filled the shelves of the general store, this singular +abstention of their guest seemed to indicate a national peculiarity. + +His bed was moved beside the low window, from which he could not only +view the veranda but converse at times with its occupants, and even +listen to the book which Miss Macy, seated without, read aloud to him. +In the evening Bradley would linger by his couch until late, beguiling +the tedium of his convalescence with characteristic stories and +information which he thought might please the invalid. For Mainwaring, +who had been early struck with Bradley's ready and cultivated +intelligence, ended by shyly avoiding the discussion of more serious +topics, partly because Bradley impressed him with a suspicion of his +own inferiority, and partly because Mainwaring questioned the taste of +Bradley's apparent exhibition of his manifest superiority. He learned +accidentally that this mill-owner and backwoodsman was a college-bred +man; but the practical application of that education to the ordinary +affairs of life was new to the young Englishman's traditions, and grated +a little harshly on his feelings. He would have been quite content if +Bradley had, like himself and fellows he knew, undervalued his training, +and kept his gifts conservatively impractical. The knowledge also that +his host's education naturally came from some provincial institution +unlike Oxford and Cambridge may have unconsciously affected his general +estimate. I say unconsciously, for his strict conscientiousness would +have rejected any such formal proposition. + +Another trifle annoyed him. He could not help noticing also that +although Bradley's manner and sympathy were confidential and almost +brotherly, he never made any allusion to Mainwaring's own family or +connections, and, in fact, gave no indication of what he believed was +the national curiosity in regard to strangers. Somewhat embarrassed by +this indifference, Mainwaring made the occasion of writing some letters +home an opportunity for laughingly alluding to the fact that he had made +his mother and his sisters fully aware of the great debt they owed the +household of The Lookout. + +“They'll probably all send you a round robin of thanks, except, perhaps, +my next brother, Bob.” + +Bradley contented himself with a gesture of general deprecation, and did +not ask WHY Mainwaring's young brother should contemplate his death with +satisfaction. Nevertheless, some time afterwards Miss Macy remarked +that it seemed hard that the happiness of one member of a family should +depend upon a calamity to another. “As for instance?” asked Mainwaring, +who had already forgotten the circumstance. “Why, if you had died and +your younger brother succeeded to the baronetcy, and become Sir Robert +Mainwaring,” responded Miss Macy, with precision. This was the first and +only allusion to his family and prospective rank. On the other hand, +he had--through naive and boyish inquiries, which seemed to amuse his +entertainers--acquired, as he believed, a full knowledge of the history +and antecedents of the Bradley household. He knew how Bradley had +brought his young wife and her cousin to California and abandoned a +lucrative law practice in San Francisco to take possession of this +mountain mill and woodland, which he had acquired through some +professional service. + +“Then you are a barrister really?” said Mainwaring, gravely. + +Bradley laughed. “I'm afraid I've had more practice--though not as +lucrative a one--as surgeon or doctor.” + +“But you're regularly on the rolls, you know; you're entered as +Counsel, and all that sort of thing?” continued Mainwaring, with great +seriousness. + +“Well, yes,” replied Bradley, much amused. “I'm afraid I must plead +guilty to that.” + +“It's not a bad sort of thing,” said Mainwaring, naively, ignoring +Bradley's amusement. “I've got a cousin who's gone in for the law. Got +out of the army to do it--too. He's a sharp fellow.” + +“Then you DO allow a man to try many trades--over there,” said Miss +Macy, demurely. + +“Yes, sometimes,” said Mainwaring, graciously, but by no means certain +that the case was at all analogous. + +Nevertheless, as if relieved of certain doubts of the conventional +quality of his host's attainments, he now gave himself up to a very +hearty and honest admiration of Bradley. “You know it's awfully kind of +him to talk to a fellow like me who just pulled through, and never got +any prizes at Oxford, and don't understand the half of these things,” he +remarked confidentially to Mrs. Bradley. “He knows more about the things +we used to go in for at Oxford than lots of our men, and he's never been +there. He's uncommonly clever.” + +“Jim was always very brilliant,” returned Mrs. Bradley, indifferently, +and with more than even conventionally polite wifely deprecation; “I +wish he were more practical.” + +“Practical! Oh, I say, Mrs. Bradley! Why, a fellow that can go in among +a lot of workmen and tell them just what to do--an all-round chap +that can be independent of his valet, his doctor, and his--banker! By +Jove--THAT'S practical!” + +“I mean,” said Mrs. Bradley, coldly, “that there are some things that +a gentleman ought not to be practical about nor independent of. Mr. +Bradley would have done better to have used his talents in some more +legitimate and established way.” + +Mainwaring looked at her in genuine surprise. To his inexperienced +observation Bradley's intelligent energy and, above all, his +originality, ought to have been priceless in the eyes of his wife--the +American female of his species. He felt that slight shock which most +loyal or logical men feel when first brought face to face with the easy +disloyalty and incomprehensible logic of the feminine affections. Here +was a fellow, by Jove, that any woman ought to be proud of, and--and--he +stopped blankly. He wondered if Miss Macy sympathized with her cousin. + +Howbeit, this did not affect the charm of their idyllic life at The +Lookout. The precipice over which they hung was as charming as ever +in its poetic illusions of space and depth and color; the isolation of +their comfortable existence in the tasteful yet audacious habitation, +the pleasant routine of daily tasks and amusements, all tended to make +the enforced quiet and inaction of his convalescence a lazy recreation. +He was really improving; more than that, he was conscious of a certain +satisfaction in this passive observation of novelty that was healthier +and perhaps TRUER than his previous passion for adventure and that +febrile desire for change and excitement which he now felt was a part +of his disease. Nor were incident and variety entirely absent from this +tranquil experience. He was one day astonished at being presented by +Bradley with copies of the latest English newspapers, procured from +Sacramento, and he equally astonished his host, after profusely thanking +him, by only listlessly glancing at their columns. He estopped a +proposed visit from one of his influential countrymen; in the absence +of his fair entertainers at their domestic duties, he extracted infinite +satisfaction from Foo-Yup, the Chinese servant, who was particularly +detached for his service. From his invalid coign of vantage at the +window he was observant of all that passed upon the veranda, that +al-fresco audience-room of The Lookout, and he was good-humoredly +conscious that a great many eccentric and peculiar visitors were +invariably dragged thither by Miss Macy, and goaded into characteristic +exhibition within sight and hearing of her guest, with a too evident +view, under the ostentatious excuse of extending his knowledge of +national character or mischievously shocking him. + +“When you are strong enough to stand Captain Gashweiler's opinions of +the Established Church and Chinamen,” said Miss Macy, after one of these +revelations, “I'll get Jim to bring him here, for really he swears +so outrageously that even in the broadest interests of international +understanding and good-will neither Mrs. Bradley nor myself could be +present.” + +On another occasion she provokingly lingered before his window for a +moment with a rifle slung jauntily over her shoulder. “If you hear a +shot or two don't excite yourself, and believe we're having a lynching +case in the woods. It will be only me. There's some creature--confess, +you expected me to say 'critter'--hanging round the barn. It may be a +bear. Good-by.” She missed the creature,--which happened to be really a +bear,--much to Mainwaring's illogical satisfaction. “I wonder why,” he +reflected, with vague uneasiness, “she doesn't leave all that sort of +thing to girls like that tow-headed girl at the blacksmith's.” + +It chanced, however, that this blacksmith's tow-headed daughter, who, it +may be incidentally remarked, had the additional eccentricities of large +black eyes and large white teeth, came to the fore in quite another +fashion. Shortly after this, Mainwaring being able to leave his room and +join the family board, Mrs. Bradley found it necessary to enlarge +her domestic service, and arranged with her nearest neighbor, the +blacksmith, to allow his daughter to come to The Lookout for a few +days to “do the chores” and assist in the housekeeping, as she had on +previous occasions. The day of her advent Bradley entered Mainwaring's +room, and, closing the door mysteriously, fixed his blue eyes, kindling +with mischief, on the young Englishman. + +“You are aware, my dear boy,” he began with affected gravity, “that you +are now living in a land of liberty, where mere artificial distinctions +are not known, and where Freedom from her mountain heights generally +levels all social positions. I think you have graciously admitted that +fact.” + +“I know I've been taking a tremendous lot of freedom with you and yours, +old man, and it's a deuced shame,” interrupted Mainwaring, with a faint +smile. + +“And that nowhere,” continued Bradley, with immovable features, “does +equality exist as perfectly as above yonder unfathomable abyss, where +you have also, doubtless, observed the American eagle proudly soars and +screams defiance.” + +“Then that was the fellow that kept me awake this morning, and made me +wonder if I was strong enough to hold a gun again.” + +“That wouldn't have settled the matter,” continued Bradley, +imperturbably. “The case is simply this: Miss Minty Sharpe, that +blacksmith's daughter, has once or twice consented, for a slight +emolument, to assist in our domestic service for a day or two, and she +comes back again to-day. Now, under the aegis of that noble bird whom +your national instincts tempt you to destroy, she has on all previous +occasions taken her meals with us, at the same table, on terms of +perfect equality. She will naturally expect to do the same now. Mrs. +Bradley thought it proper, therefore, to warn you, that, in case your +health was not quite equal to this democratic simplicity, you could +still dine in your room.” + +“It would be great fun--if Miss Sharpe won't object to my presence.” + +“But it must not be 'great fun,'” returned Bradley, more seriously; “for +Miss Minty's perception of humor is probably as keen as yours, and she +would be quick to notice it. And, so far from having any objection +to you, I am inclined to think that we owe her consent to come to her +desire of making your acquaintance.” + +“She will find my conduct most exemplary,” said Mainwaring, earnestly. + +“Let us hope so,” concluded Bradley, with unabated gravity. “And, now +that you have consented, let me add from my own experience that Miss +Minty's lemon-pies alone are worthy of any concession.” + +The dinner-hour came. Mainwaring, a little pale and interesting, leaning +on the arm of Bradley, crossed the hall, and for the first time entered +the dining-room of the house where he had lodged for three weeks. It +was a bright, cheerful apartment, giving upon the laurels of the rocky +hillside, and permeated, like the rest of the house, with the wholesome +spice of the valley--an odor that, in its pure desiccating property, +seemed to obliterate all flavor of alien human habitation, and even to +dominate and etherealize the appetizing smell of the viands before +them. The bare, shining, planed, boarded walls appeared to resent any +decoration that might have savored of dust, decay, or moisture. The four +large windows and long, open door, set in scanty strips of the plainest +spotless muslin, framed in themselves pictures of woods and rock and sky +of limitless depth, color, and distance, that made all other adornment +impertinent. Nature, invading the room at every opening, had banished +Art from those neutral walls. + +“It's like a picnic, with comfort,” said Mainwaring, glancing round him +with boyish appreciation. Miss Minty was not yet there; the Chinaman +was alone in attendance. Mainwaring could not help whispering, half +mischievously, to Louise, “You draw the line at Chinamen, I suppose?” + +“WE don't, but HE does,” answered the young girl. “He considers us his +social inferiors. But--hush!” + +Minty Sharpe had just entered the room, and was advancing with smiling +confidence towards the table. Mainwaring was a little startled; he had +seen Minty in a holland sun-bonnet and turned up skirt crossing +the veranda, only a moment before; in the brief instant between the +dishing-up of dinner and its actual announcement she had managed to +change her dress, put on a clean collar, cuffs, and a large jet brooch, +and apply some odorous unguent to her rebellious hair. Her face, +guiltless of powder or cold cream, was still shining with the healthy +perspiration of her last labors as she promptly took the vacant chair +beside Mainwaring. + +“Don't mind me, folks,” she said cheerfully, resting her plump elbow on +the table, and addressing the company generally, but gazing with frank +curiosity into the face of the young man at her side. “It was a keen +jump, I tell yer, to get out of my old duds inter these, and look +decent inside o' five minutes. But I reckon I ain't kept yer waitin' +long--least of all this yer sick stranger. But you're looking pearter +than you did. You're wonderin' like ez not where I ever saw ye before?” + she continued, laughing. “Well, I'll tell you. Last week! I'd kem over +yer on a chance of seein' Jenny Bradley, and while I was meanderin' down +the veranda I saw you lyin' back in your chair by the window drowned +in sleep, like a baby. Lordy! I mout hev won a pair o' gloves, but I +reckoned you were Loo's game, and not mine.” + +The slightly constrained laugh which went round the table after Miss +Minty's speech was due quite as much to the faint flush that had +accented Mainwaring's own smile as to the embarrassing remark itself. +Mrs. Bradley and Miss Macy exchanged rapid glances. Bradley, who alone +retained his composure, with a slight flicker of amusement in the corner +of his eye and nostril, said quickly: “You see, Mainwaring, how nature +stands ready to help your convalescence at every turn. If Miss Minty +had only followed up her healing opportunity, your cure would have been +complete.” + +“Ye mout hev left some o' that pretty talk for HIM to say,” said Minty, +taking up her knife and fork with a slight shrug, “and you needn't call +me MISS Minty either, jest because there's kempeny present.” + +“I hope you won't look upon me as company, Minty, or I shall be obliged +to call you 'Miss' too,” said Mainwaring, unexpectedly regaining his +usual frankness. + +Bradley's face brightened; Miss Minty raised her black eyes from her +plate with still broader appreciation. + +“There's nothin' mean about that,” she said, showing her white teeth. +“Well, what's YOUR first name?” + +“Not as pretty as yours, I'm afraid. It's Frank.” + +“No it ain't, it's Francis! You reckon to be Sir Francis some day,” she +said gravely. “You can't play any Frank off on me. You wouldn't do it on +HER,” she added, indicating Louise with her elbow. + +A momentous silence followed. The particular form that Minty's vulgarity +had taken had not been anticipated by the two other women. They had, +not unreasonably, expected some original audacity or gaucherie from the +blacksmith's daughter, which might astonish yet amuse their guest, and +condone for the situation forced upon them. But they were not prepared +for a playfulness that involved themselves in a ridiculous indiscretion. +Mrs. Bradley's eyes sought her husband's meaningly; Louise's pretty +mouth hardened. Luckily the cheerful cause of it suddenly jumped up +from the table, and saying that the stranger was starving, insisted upon +bringing a dish from the other side and helping him herself plentifully. +Mainwaring rose gallantly to take the dish from her hand, a slight +scuffle ensued which ended in the young man being forced down in his +chair by the pressure of Minty's strong plump hand on his shoulder. +“There,” she said, “ye kin mind your dinner now, and I reckon we'll give +the others a chance to chip into the conversation,” and at once applied +herself to the plate before her. + +The conversation presently became general, with the exception that +Minty, more or less engrossed by professional anxiety in the quality +of the dinner and occasional hurried visits to the kitchen, briefly +answered the few polite remarks which Mainwaring felt called upon to +address to her. Nevertheless, he was conscious, malgre her rallying +allusions to Miss Macy, that he felt none of the vague yet half pleasant +anxiety with which Louise was beginning to inspire him. He felt at +ease in Minty's presence, and believed, rightly or wrongly, that she +understood him as well as he understood her. And there were certainly +points in common between his two hostesses and their humbler though +proud dependent. The social evolution of Mrs. Bradley and Louise +Macy from some previous Minty was neither remote nor complete; the +self-sufficient independence, ease, and quiet self-assertion were alike +in each. The superior position was still too recent and accidental for +either to resent or criticise qualities that were common to both. At +least, this was what he thought when not abandoning himself to the +gratification of a convalescent appetite; to the presence of two pretty +women, the sympathy of a genial friend, the healthy intoxication of the +white sunlight that glanced upon the pine walls, the views that mirrored +themselves in the open windows, and the pure atmosphere in which The +Lookout seemed to swim. Wandering breezes of balm and spice lightly +stirred the flowers on the table, and seemed to fan his hair and +forehead with softly healing breath. Looking up in an interval of +silence, he caught Bradley's gray eyes fixed upon him with a subdued +light of amusement and affection, as of an elder brother regarding a +schoolboy's boisterous appetite at some feast. Mainwaring laid down +his knife and fork with a laughing color, touched equally by Bradley's +fraternal kindliness and the consciousness of his gastronomical powers. + +“Hang it, Bradley; look here! I know my appetite's disgraceful, but what +can a fellow do? In such air, with such viands and such company! It's +like the bees getting drunk on Hybla and Hymettus, you know. I'm not +responsible!” + +“It's the first square meal I believe you've really eaten in six +months,” said Bradley, gravely. “I can't understand why your doctor +allowed you to run down so dreadfully.” + +“I reckon you ain't as keerful of yourself, you Britishers, ez us,” said +Minty. “Lordy! Why there's Pop invests in more patent medicines in one +day than you have in two weeks, and he'd make two of you. Mebbe your +folks don't look after you enough.” + +“I'm a splendid advertisement of what YOUR care and your medicines have +done,” said Mainwaring, gratefully, to Mrs. Bradley; “and if you ever +want to set up a 'Cure' here, I'm ready with a ten-page testimonial.” + +“Have a care, Mainwaring,” said Bradley, laughing, “that the ladies +don't take you at your word. Louise and Jenny have been doing their +best for the last year to get me to accept a flattering offer from +a Sacramento firm to put up a hotel for tourists on the site of The +Lookout. Why, I believe that they have already secretly in their +hearts concocted a flaming prospectus of 'Unrivalled Scenery' and +'Health-giving Air,' and are looking forward to Saturday night hops on +the piazza.” + +“Have you really, though?” said Mainwaring, gazing from the one to the +other. + +“We should certainly see more company than we do now, and feel a little +less out of the world,” said Louise, candidly. “There are no neighbors +here--I mean the people at the Summit are not,” she added, with a slight +glance towards Minty. + +“And Mr. Bradley would find it more profitable--not to say more suitable +to a man of his position--than this wretched saw-mill and timber +business,” said Mrs. Bradley, decidedly. + +Mainwaring was astounded; was it possible they considered it more +dignified for a lawyer to keep a hotel than a saw-mill? Bradley, as if +answering what was passing in his mind, said mischievously, “I'm +not sure, exactly, what my position is, my dear, and I'm afraid I've +declined the hotel on business principles. But, by the way, Mainwaring, +I found a letter at the mill this morning from Mr. Richardson. He is +about to pay us the distinguished honor of visiting The Lookout, solely +on your account, my dear fellow.” + +“But I wrote him that I was much better, and it wasn't necessary for him +to come,” said Mainwaring. + +“He makes an excuse of some law business with me. I suppose he considers +the mere fact of his taking the trouble to come here, all the way from +San Francisco, a sufficient honor to justify any absence of formal +invitation,” said Bradley, smiling. + +“But he's only--I mean he's my father's banker,” said Mainwaring, +correcting himself, “and--you don't keep a hotel.” + +“Not yet,” returned Bradley, with a mischievous glance at the two women, +“but The Lookout is elastic, and I dare say we can manage to put him +up.” + +A silence ensued. It seemed as if some shadow, or momentary darkening +of the brilliant atmosphere; some film across the mirror-like expanse of +the open windows, or misty dimming of their wholesome light, had arisen +to their elevation. Mainwaring felt that he was looking forward with +unreasoning indignation and uneasiness to this impending interruption +of their idyllic life; Mrs. Bradley and Louise, who had become a +little more constrained and formal under Minty's freedom, were less +sympathetic; even the irrepressible Minty appeared absorbed in the +responsibilities of the dinner. + +Bradley alone preserved his usual patient good-humor. “We'll take +our coffee on the veranda, and the ladies will join us by and by, +Mainwaring; besides, I don't know that I can allow you, as an invalid, +to go entirely through Minty's bountiful menu at present. You shall have +the sweets another time.” + +When they were alone on the veranda, he said, between the puffs of his +black brier-wood pipe,--a pet aversion of Mrs. Bradley,--“I wonder how +Richardson will accept Minty!” + +“If I can, I think he MUST,” returned Mainwaring, dryly. “By Jove, it +will be great fun to see him; but”--he stopped and hesitated--“I don't +know about the ladies. I don't think, you know, that they'll stand Minty +again before another stranger.” + +Bradley glanced quickly at the young man; their eyes met, and they both +joined in a superior and, I fear, disloyal smile. After a pause Bradley, +as if in a spirit of further confidence, took his pipe from his mouth +and pointed to the blue abyss before them. + +“Look at that profundity, Mainwaring, and think of it ever being bullied +and overawed by a long veranda-load of gaping, patronizing tourists, +and the idiotic flirting females of their species. Think of a lot of +over-dressed creatures flouting those severe outlines and deep-toned +distances with frippery and garishness. You know how you have been +lulled to sleep by that delicious, indefinite, far-off murmur of +the canyon at night--think of it being broken by a crazy waltz or a +monotonous german--by the clatter of waiters and the pop of champagne +corks. And yet, by thunder, those women are capable of liking both and +finding no discord in them!” + +“Dancing ain't half bad, you know,” said Mainwaring, conscientiously, +“if a chap's got the wind to do it; and all Americans, especially the +women, dance better than we do. But I say, Bradley, to hear you talk, +a fellow wouldn't suspect you were as big a Vandal as anybody, with a +beastly, howling saw-mill in the heart of the primeval forest. By Jove, +you quite bowled me over that first day we met, when you popped your +head out of that delirium tremens shaking mill, like the very genius of +destructive improvement.” + +“But that was FIGHTING Nature, not patronizing her; and it's a business +that pays. That reminds me that I must go back to it,” said Bradley, +rising and knocking the ashes from his pipe. + +“Not AFTER dinner, surely!” said Mainwaring, in surprise. “Come now, +that's too much like the bolting Yankee of the travellers' books.” + +“There's a heavy run to get through tonight. We're working against +time,” returned Bradley. Even while speaking he had vanished within the +house, returned quickly--having replaced his dark suit by jean trousers +tucked in heavy boots, and a red flannel shirt over his starched white +one--and, nodding gayly to Mainwaring, stepped from the lower end of the +veranda. “The beggar actually looks pleased to go,” said Mainwaring to +himself in wonderment. + +“Oh! Jim,” said Mrs. Bradley, appearing at the door. + +“Yes,” said Bradley, faintly, from the bushes. + +“Minty's ready. You might take her home.” + +“All right. I'll wait.” + +“I hope I haven't frightened Miss Sharpe away,” said Mainwaring. “She +isn't going, surely?” + +“Only to get some better clothes, on account of company. I'm afraid +you are giving her a good deal of trouble, Mr. Mainwaring,” said Mrs. +Bradley, laughing. + +“She wished me to say good-by to you for her, as she couldn't come on +the veranda in her old shawl and sun-bonnet,” added Louise, who had +joined them. “What do you really think of her, Mr. Mainwaring? I call +her quite pretty, at times. Don't you?” + +Mainwaring knew not what to say. He could not understand why they +could have any special interest in the girl, or care to know what he, a +perfect stranger, thought of her. He avoided a direct reply, however, by +playfully wondering how Mrs. Bradley could subject her husband to Miss +Minty's undivided fascinations. + +“Oh, Jim always takes her home--if it's in the evening. He gets along +with these people better than we do,” returned Mrs. Bradley, +dryly. “But,” she added, with a return of her piquant Quaker-like +coquettishness, “Jim says we are to devote ourselves to you to-night--in +retaliation, I suppose. We are to amuse you, and not let you get +excited; and you are to be sent to bed early.” + +It is to be feared that these latter wise precautions--invaluable for +all defenceless and enfeebled humanity--were not carried out: and it +was late when Mainwaring eventually retired, with brightened eyes and a +somewhat accelerated pulse. For the ladies, who had quite regained that +kindly equanimity which Minty had rudely interrupted, had also added +a delicate and confidential sympathy in their relations with +Mainwaring,--as of people who had suffered in common,--and he +experienced these tender attentions at their hands which any two women +are emboldened by each other's saving presence to show any single member +of our sex. Indeed, he hardly knew if his satisfaction was the more +complete when Mrs. Bradley, withdrawing for a few moments, left him +alone on the veranda with Louise and the vast, omnipotent night. + +For a while they sat silent, in the midst of the profound and +measureless calm. Looking down upon the dim moonlit abyss at their feet, +they themselves seemed a part of this night that arched above it; the +half-risen moon appeared to linger long enough at their side to enwrap +and suffuse them with its glory; a few bright stars quietly ringed +themselves around them, and looked wonderingly into the level of their +own shining eyes. For some vague yearning to humanity seemed to draw +this dark and passionless void towards them. The vast protecting +maternity of Nature leant hushed and breathless over the solitude. Warm +currents of air rose occasionally from the valley, which one might have +believed were sighs from its full and overflowing breast, or a grateful +coolness swept their cheeks and hair when the tranquil heights around +them were moved to slowly respond. Odors from invisible bay and +laurel sometimes filled the air; the incense of some rare and remoter +cultivated meadow beyond their ken, or the strong germinating breath +of leagues of wild oats, that had yellowed the upland by day. In the +silence and shadow, their voices took upon themselves, almost without +their volition, a far-off confidential murmur, with intervals of meaning +silence--rather as if their thoughts had spoken for themselves, and they +had stopped wonderingly to listen. They talked at first vaguely to this +discreet audience of space and darkness, and then, growing bolder, spoke +to each other and of themselves. Invested by the infinite gravity of +nature, they had no fear of human ridicule to restrain their youthful +conceit or the extravagance of their unimportant confessions. +They talked of their tastes, of their habits, of their friends +and acquaintances. They settled some points of doctrine, duty, and +etiquette, with the sweet seriousness of youth and its all-powerful +convictions. The listening vines would have recognized no flirtation or +love-making in their animated but important confidences; yet when Mrs. +Bradley reappeared to warn the invalid that it was time to seek his +couch, they both coughed slightly in the nervous consciousness of some +unaccustomed quality in their voices, and a sense of interruption far +beyond their own or the innocent intruder's ken. + +“Well?” said Mrs. Bradley, in the sitting-room as Mainwaring's steps +retreated down the passage to his room. + +“Well,” said Louise with a slight yawn, leaning her pretty shoulders +languidly against the door-post, as she shaded her moonlight-accustomed +eyes from the vulgar brilliancy of Mrs. Bradley's bedroom candle. +“Well--oh, he talked a great deal about 'his people' as he called them, +and I talked about us. He's very nice. You know in some things he's +really like a boy.” + +“He looks much better.” + +“Yes; but he is far from strong yet.” + +Meantime, Mainwaring had no other confidant of his impressions than his +own thoughts. Mingled with his exaltation, which was the more seductive +that it had no well-defined foundation for existing, and implied +no future responsibility, was a recurrence of his uneasiness at the +impending visit of Richardson the next day. Strangely enough, it had +increased under the stimulus of the evening. Just as he was really +getting on with the family, he felt sure that this visitor would import +some foreign element into their familiarity, as Minty had done. It was +possible they would not like him: now he remembered there was +really something ostentatiously British and insular about this +Richardson--something they would likely resent. Why couldn't this fellow +have come later--or even before? Before what? But here he fell asleep, +and almost instantly slipped from this veranda in the Sierras, six +thousand miles away, to an ancient terrace, overgrown with moss and +tradition, that overlooked the sedate glory of an English park. Here he +found himself, restricted painfully by his inconsistent night-clothes, +endeavoring to impress his mother and sisters with the singular +virtues and excellences of his American host and hostesses--virtues and +excellences that he himself was beginning to feel conscious had become +more or less apocryphal in that atmosphere. He heard his mother's voice +saying severely, “When you learn, Francis, to respect the opinions and +prejudices of your family enough to prevent your appearing before them +in this uncivilized aboriginal costume, we will listen to what you have +to say of the friends whose habits you seem to have adopted;” and he +was frantically indignant that his efforts to convince them that his +negligence was a personal oversight, and not a Californian custom, +were utterly futile. But even then this vision was brushed away by the +bewildering sweep of Louise's pretty skirt across the dreamy picture, +and her delicate features and softly-fringed eyes remained the last to +slip from his fading consciousness. + +The moon rose higher and higher above the sleeping house and softly +breathing canyon. There was nothing to mar the idyllic repose of the +landscape; only the growing light of the last two hours had brought out +in the far eastern horizon a dim white peak, that gleamed faintly among +the stars, like a bridal couch spread between the hills fringed with +fading nuptial torches. No one would have believed that behind that +impenetrable shadow to the west, in the heart of the forest, the +throbbing saw-mill of James Bradley was even at that moment eating its +destructive way through the conserved growth of Nature and centuries, +and that the refined proprietor of house and greenwood, with the glow of +his furnace fires on his red shirt, and his alert, intelligent eyes, was +the genie of that devastation, and the toiling leader of the shadowy, +toiling figures around him. + + + + +CHAPER III. + + +Amid the beauty of the most uncultivated and untrodden wilderness there +are certain localities where the meaner and mere common processes +of Nature take upon themselves a degrading likeness to the slovenly, +wasteful, and improvident processes of man. The unrecorded land-slip +disintegrating a whole hillside will not only lay bare the delicate +framework of strata and deposit to the vulgar eye, but hurl into the +valley a debris so monstrous and unlovely as to shame even the hideous +ruins left by dynamite, hydraulic, or pick and shovel; an overflown and +forgotten woodland torrent will leave in some remote hollow a disturbed +and ungraceful chaos of inextricable logs, branches, rock, and soil that +will rival the unsavory details of some wrecked or abandoned settlement. +Of lesser magnitude and importance, there are certain natural +dust-heaps, sinks, and cesspools, where the elements have collected the +cast-off, broken, and frayed disjecta of wood and field--the sweepings +of the sylvan household. It was remarkable that Nature, so kindly +considerate of mere human ruins, made no attempt to cover up or disguise +these monuments of her own mortality: no grass grew over the unsightly +landslides, no moss or ivy clothed the stripped and bleached skeletons +of overthrown branch and tree; the dead leaves and withered husks rotted +in their open grave uncrossed by vine and creeper. Even the animals, +except the lower organizations, shunned those haunts of decay and ruin. + +It was scarcely a hundred yards from one of those dreary receptacles +that Mr. Bradley had taken leave of Miss Minty Sharpe. The cabin +occupied by her father, herself, and a younger brother stood, in fact, +on the very edge of the little hollow, which was partly filled with +decayed wood, leaves, and displacements of the crumbling bank, with +the coal dust and ashes which Mr. Sharpe had added from his forge, that +stood a few paces distant at the corner of a cross-road. The occupants +of the cabin had also contributed to the hollow the refuse of their +household in broken boxes, earthenware, tin cans, and cast-off clothing; +and it is not improbable that the site of the cabin was chosen with +reference to this convenient disposal of useless and encumbering +impedimenta. It was true that the locality offered little choice in +the way of beauty. An outcrop of brown granite--a portent of higher +altitudes--extended a quarter of a mile from the nearest fringe of dwarf +laurel and “brush” in one direction; in the other an advanced file of +Bradley's woods had suffered from some long-forgotten fire, and still +raised its blackened masts and broken stumps over the scorched and arid +soil, swept of older underbrush and verdure. On the other side of the +road a dark ravine, tangled with briers and haunted at night by owls and +wild cats, struggled wearily on, until blundering at last upon the edge +of the Great Canyon, it slipped and lost itself forever in a single +furrow of those mighty flanks. When Bradley had once asked Sharpe why he +had not built his house in the ravine, the blacksmith had replied: “That +until the Lord had appointed his time, he reckoned to keep his head +above ground and the foundations thereof.” Howbeit, the ravine, or the +“run,” as it was locally known, was Minty's only Saturday afternoon +resort for recreation or berries. “It was,” she had explained, “pow'ful +soothin', and solitary.” + +She entered the house--a rude, square building of unpainted +boards--containing a sitting-room, a kitchen, and two bedrooms. A glance +at these rooms, which were plainly furnished, and whose canvas-colored +walls were adorned with gorgeous agricultural implement +circulars, patent medicine calendars, with polytinted chromos and +cheaply-illuminated Scriptural texts, showed her that a certain neatness +and order had been preserved during her absence; and, finding the house +empty, she crossed the barren and blackened intervening space between +the back door and her father's forge, and entered the open shed. The +light was fading from the sky; but the glow of the forge lit up the +dusty road before it, and accented the blackness of the rocky ledge +beyond. A small curly-headed boy, bearing a singular likeness to a +smudged and blackened crayon drawing of Minty, was mechanically +blowing the bellows and obviously intent upon something else; while her +father--a powerfully built man, with a quaintly dissatisfied expression +of countenance--was with equal want of interest mechanically hammering +at a horseshoe. Without noticing Minty's advent, he lazily broke into a +querulous drawling chant of some vague religious character: + + “O tur-ren, sinner; tur-ren. + For the Lord bids you turn--ah! + O tur-ren, sinner; tur-ren. + Why will you die?” + +The musical accent adapted itself to the monotonous fall of the +sledge-hammer; and at every repetition of the word “turn” he suited the +action to the word by turning the horseshoe with the iron in his left +hand. A slight grunt at the end of every stroke, and the simultaneous +repetition of “turn” seemed to offer him amusement and relief. Minty, +without speaking, crossed the shop, and administered a sound box on her +brother's ear. “Take that, and let me ketch you agen layin' low when my +back's turned, to put on your store pants.” + +“The others had fetched away in the laig,” said the boy, opposing a knee +and elbow at acute angle to further attack. + +“You jest get and change 'em,” said Minty. + +The sudden collapse of the bellows broke in upon the soothing refrain of +Mr. Sharpe, and caused him to turn also. + +“It's Minty,” he said, replacing the horseshoe on the coals, and setting +his powerful arms and the sledge on the anvil with an exaggerated +expression of weariness. + +“Yes; it's me,” said Minty, “and Creation knows it's time I DID come, to +keep that boy from ruinin' us with his airs and conceits.” + +“Did ye bring over any o' that fever mixter?” + +“No. Bradley sez you're loading yerself up with so much o' that bitter +bark--kuinine they call it over there--that you'll lift the ruff off +your head next. He allows ye ain't got no ague; it's jest wind and +dyspepsy. He sez yer's strong ez a hoss.” + +“Bradley,” said Sharpe, laying aside his sledge with an aggrieved manner +which was, however, as complacent as his fatigue and discontent, “ez one +of them nat'ral born finikin skunks ez I despise. I reckon he began +to give p'ints to his parents when he was about knee-high to Richelieu +there. He's on them confidential terms with hisself and the Almighty +that he reckons he ken run a saw-mill and a man's insides at the same +time with one hand tied behind him. And this finikin is up to his +conceit: he wanted to tell me that that yer handy brush dump outside our +shanty was unhealthy. Give a man with frills like that his own way and +he'd be a sprinkling odor cologne and peppermint all over the country.” + +“He set your shoulder as well as any doctor,” said Minty. + +“That's bone-settin', and a nat'ral gift,” returned Sharpe, as +triumphantly as his habitual depression would admit; “it ain't conceit +and finikin got out o' books! Well,” he added, after a pause, “wot's +happened?” + +Minty's face slightly changed. “Nothin'; I kem back to get some things,” + she said shortly, moving away. + +“And ye saw HIM?” + +“Ye-e-s,” drawled Minty, carelessly, still retreating. + +“Bixby was along here about noon. He says the stranger was suthin' high +and mighty in his own country, and them 'Frisco millionaires are quite +sweet on him. Where are ye goin'?” + +“In the house.” + +“Well, look yer, Minty. Now that you're here, ye might get up a batch +o' hot biscuit for supper. Dinner was that promiscous and experimental +to-day, along o' Richelieu's nat'ral foolin', that I think I could git +outside of a little suthin' now, if only to prop up a kind of innard +sinkin' that takes me. Ye ken tell me the news at supper.” + +Later, however, when Mr. Sharpe had quitted his forge for the night and, +seated at his domestic board, was, with a dismal presentiment of future +indigestion, voraciously absorbing his favorite meal of hot saleratus +biscuits swimming in butter, he had apparently forgotten his curiosity +concerning Mainwaring and settled himself to a complaining chronicle of +the day's mishaps. “Nat'rally, havin' an extra lot o' work on hand and +no time for foolin', what does that ornery Richelieu get up and do this +mornin'? Ye know them ridiklus specimens that he's been chippin' outer +that ledge that the yearth slipped from down the run, and litterin' up +the whole shanty with 'em. Well, darn my skin! if he didn't run a heap +of 'em, mixed up with coal, unbeknowned to me, in the forge, to make +what he called a 'fire essay' of 'em. Nat'rally, I couldn't get a +blessed iron hot, and didn't know what had gone of the fire, or the coal +either, for two hours, till I stopped work and raked out the coal. That +comes from his hangin' round that saw-mill in the woods, and listenin' +to Bradley's high-falutin' talk about rocks and strata and sich.” + +“But Bradley don't go a cent on minin', Pop,” said Minty. “He sez the +woods is good enough for him; and there's millions to be made when the +railroad comes along, and timber's wanted.” + +“But until then he's got to keep hisself, to pay wages, and keep the +mill runnin'. Onless it's, ez Bixby says, that he hopes to get that +Englishman to rope in some o' them 'Frisco friends of his to take a +hand. Ye didn't have any o' that kind o' talk, did ye?” + +“No; not THAT kind o' talk,” said Minty. + +“Not THAT kind o' talk!” repeated her father with aggrieved curiosity, +“Wot kind, then?” + +“Well,” said Minty, lifting her black eyes to her father's; “I ain't +no account, and you ain't no account either. You ain't got no college +education, ain't got no friends in 'Frisco, and ain't got no high-toned +style; I can't play the pianner, jabber French, nor get French dresses. +We ain't got no fancy 'Shallet,' as they call it, with a first-class +view of nothing; but only a shanty on dry rock. But, afore I'D take +advantage of a lazy, gawky boy--for it ain't anything else, though he's +good meanin' enough--that happened to fall sick in MY house, and coax +and cosset him, and wrap him in white cotton, and mother him, and sister +him, and Aunt Sukey him, and almost dry-nuss him gin'rally, jist to get +him sweet on me and on mine, and take the inside track of others--I'D be +an Injin! And if you'd allow it, Pop, you'd be wuss nor a nigger!” + +“Sho!” said her father, kindling with that intense gratification with +which the male receives any intimation of alien feminine weakness. “It +ain't that, Minty, I wanter know!” + +“It's jist that, Pop; and I ez good ez let 'em know I seed it. I ain't a +fool, if some folks do drop their eyes and pertend to wipe the laugh out +of their noses with a handkerchief when I let out to speak. I mayn't be +good enough kempany--” + +“Look yer, Minty,” interrupted the blacksmith, sternly, half rising +from his seat with every trace of his former weakness vanished from his +hardset face; “do you mean to say that they put on airs to ye--to MY +darter?” + +“No,” said Minty quickly; “the men didn't; and don't you, a man, mix +yourself up with women's meannesses. I ken manage 'em, Pop, with one +hand.” + +Mr. Sharpe looked at his daughter's flashing black eyes. Perhaps an +uneasy recollection of the late Mrs. Sharpe's remarkable capacity in +that respect checked his further rage. + +“No. Wot I was sayin',” resumed Minty, “ez that I mayn't be thought by +others good enough to keep kempany with baronetts ez is to be--though +baronetts mightn't object--but I ain't mean enough to try to steal away +some ole woman's darling boy in England, or snatch some likely young +English girl's big brother outer the family without sayin' by your +leave. How'd you like it if Richelieu was growed up, and went to +sea,--and it would be like his peartness,--and he fell sick in some +foreign land, and some princess or other skyulged HIM underhand away +from us?” + +Probably owing to the affair of the specimens, the elder Sharpe did not +seem to regard the possible mesalliance of Richelieu with extraordinary +disfavor. “That boy is conceited enough with hair ile and fine clothes +for anything,” he said plaintively. “But didn't that Louise Macy hev a +feller already--that Captain Greyson? Wot's gone o' him?” + +“That's it,” said Minty: “he kin go out in the woods and whistle now. +But all the same, she could hitch him in again at any time if the other +stranger kicked over the traces. That's the style over there at The +Lookout. There ain't ez much heart in them two women put together ez +would make a green gal flush up playin' forfeits. It's all in their +breed, Pop. Love ain't going to spile their appetites and complexions, +give 'em nose-bleed, nor put a drop o' water into their eyes in all +their natural born days. That's wot makes me mad. Ef I thought that Loo +cared a bit for that child I wouldn't mind; I'd just advise her to make +him get up and get--pack his duds out o' camp, and go home and not come +back until he had a written permit from his mother, or the other baronet +in office.” + +“Looks sorter ef some one orter interfere,” said the blacksmith, +reflectively. “'Tain't exackly a case for a vigilance committee, tho' +it's agin public morals, this sorter kidnappin' o' strangers. Looks ez +if it might bring the country into discredit in England.” + +“Well, don't YOU go and interfere and havin' folks say ez my nose +was put out o' jint over there,” said Minty, curtly. “There's another +Englishman comin' up from 'Frisco to see him to-morrow. Ef he ain't +scooped up by Jenny Bradley he'll guess there's a nigger in the fence +somewhere. But there, Pop, let it drop. It's a bad aig, anyway,” she +concluded, rising from the table, and passing her hands down her frock +and her shapely hips, as if to wipe off further contamination of the +subject. “Where's Richelieu agin?” + +“Said he didn't want supper, and like ez not he's gone over to see that +fammerly at the Summit. There's a little girl thar he's sparkin', about +his own age.” + +“His own age!” said Minty, indignantly. “Why, she's double that, if +she's a day. Well--if he ain't the triflinest, conceitednest little limb +that ever grew! I'd like to know where he got it from--it wasn't mar's +style.” + +Mr. Sharpe smiled darkly. Richelieu's precocious gallantry evidently was +not considered as gratuitous as his experimental metallurgy. But as his +eyes followed his daughter's wholesome, Phyllis-like figure, a new idea +took possession of him: needless to say, however, it was in the line +of another personal aggrievement, albeit it took the form of religious +reflection. + +“It's curous, Minty, wot's foreordained, and wot ain't. Now, yer's one +of them high and mighty fellows, after the Lord, ez comes meanderin' +around here, and drops off--ez fur ez I kin hear--in a kind o' faint at +the first house he kems to, and is taken in and lodged and sumptuously +fed; and, nat'rally, they gets their reward for it. Now wot's to hev +kept that young feller from coming HERE and droppin' down in my forge, +or in this very room, and YOU a tendin' him, and jist layin' over them +folks at The Lookout?” + +“Wot's got hold o' ye, Pop? Don't I tell ye he had a letter to Jim +Bradley?” said Minty, quickly, with an angry flash of color in her +cheek. + +“That ain't it,” said Sharpe confidently; “it's cos he WALKED. +Nat'rally, you'd think he'd RIDE, being high and mighty, and that's +where, ez the parson will tell ye, wot's merely fi-nite and human wisdom +errs! Ef that feller had ridden, he'd have had to come by this yer +road, and by this yer forge, and stop a spell like any other. But it +was foreordained that he should walk, jest cos it wasn't generally +kalkilated and reckoned on. So, YOU had no show.” + +For a moment, Minty seemed struck with her father's original theory. +But with a vigorous shake of her shoulders she threw it off. Her eyes +darkened. + +“I reckon you ain't thinking, Pop--” she began. + +“I was only sayin' it was curous,” he rejoined quietly. Nevertheless, +after a pause, he rose, coughed, and going up to the young girl, as she +leaned over the dresser, bent his powerful arm around her, and, drawing +her and the plate she was holding against his breast, laid his bearded +cheek for an instant softly upon her rebellious head. “It's all right, +Minty,” he said; “ain't it, pet?” Minty's eyelids closed gently under +the familiar pressure. “Wot's that in your hair, Minty?” he said +tactfully, breaking an embarrassing pause. + +“Bar's grease, father,” murmured Minty, in a child's voice--the grown-up +woman, under that magic touch, having lapsed again into her father's +motherless charge of ten years before. + +“It's pow'ful soothin', and pretty,” said her father. + +“I made it myself--do you want some?” asked Minty. + +“Not now, girl!” For a moment they slightly rocked each other in that +attitude--the man dexterously, the woman with infinite tenderness--and +then they separated. + +Late that night, after Richelieu had returned, and her father wrestled +in his fitful sleep with the remorse of his guilty indulgence at supper, +Minty remained alone in her room, hard at work, surrounded by the +contents of one of her mother's trunks and the fragments of certain +ripped-up and newly-turned dresses. For Minty had conceived the bold +idea of altering one of her mother's gowns to the fashion of a certain +fascinating frock worn by Louise Macy. It was late when her self-imposed +task was completed. With a nervous trepidation that was novel to +her, Minty began to disrobe herself preparatory to trying on her new +creation. The light of a tallow candle and a large swinging lantern, +borrowed from her father's forge, fell shyly on her milky neck and +shoulders, and shone in her sparkling eyes, as she stood before her +largest mirror--the long glazed door of a kitchen clock which she had +placed upon her chest of drawers. Had poor Minty been content with the +full, free, and goddess-like outlines that it reflected, she would have +been spared her impending disappointment. For, alas! the dress of her +model had been framed upon a symmetrically attenuated French corset, and +the unfortunate Minty's fuller and ampler curves had under her simple +country stays known no more restraining cincture than knew the Venus +of Milo. The alteration was a hideous failure, it was neither Minty's +statuesque outline nor Louise Macy's graceful contour. Minty was no +fool, and the revelation of this slow education of the figure and +training of outline--whether fair or false in art--struck her quick +intelligence with all its full and hopeless significance. A bitter light +sprang to her eyes; she tore the wretched sham from her shoulders, and +then wrapping a shawl around her, threw herself heavily and sullenly on +the bed. But inaction was not a characteristic of Minty's emotion; she +presently rose again, and, taking an old work-box from her trunk, began +to rummage in its recesses. It was an old shell-incrusted affair, and +the apparent receptacle of such cheap odds and ends of jewelry as she +possessed; a hideous cameo ring, the property of the late Mrs. Sharpe, +was missing. She again rapidly explored the contents of the box, and +then an inspiration seized her, and she darted into her brother's +bedroom. + +That precocious and gallant Lovelace of ten, despite all sentiment, had +basely succumbed to the gross materialism of youthful slumber. On a +cot in the corner, half hidden under the wreck of his own careless and +hurried disrobing, with one arm hanging out of the coverlid, Richelieu +lay supremely unconscious. On the forefinger of his small but dirty hand +the missing cameo was still glittering guiltily. With a swift movement +of indignation Minty rushed with uplifted palm towards the tempting +expanse of youthful cheek that lay invitingly exposed upon the pillow. +Then she stopped suddenly. + +She had seen him lying thus a hundred times before. On the pillow near +him an indistinguishable mass of golden fur--the helpless bulk of a +squirrel chained to the leg of his cot; at his feet a wall-eyed cat, who +had followed his tyrannous caprices with the long-suffering devotion +of her sex; on the shelf above him a loathsome collection of flies +and tarantulas in dull green bottles: a slab of ginger-bread for light +nocturnal refection, and her own pot of bear's grease. Perhaps it was +the piteous defencelessness of youthful sleep, perhaps it was some +lingering memory of her father's caress; but as she gazed at him with +troubled eyes, the juvenile reprobate slipped back into the baby-boy +that she had carried in her own childish arms such a short time ago, +when the maternal responsibility had descended with the dead mother's +ill-fitting dresses upon her lank girlish figure and scant virgin +breast--and her hand fell listlessly at her side. + +The sleeper stirred slightly and awoke. At the same moment, by some +mysterious sympathy, a pair of beady bright eyes appeared in the bulk +of fur near his curls, the cat stretched herself, and even a vague +agitation was heard in the bottles on the shelf. Richelieu's blinking +eyes wandered from the candle to his sister, and then the guilty hand +was suddenly withdrawn under the bedclothes. + +“No matter, dear,” said Minty; “it's mar's, and you kin wear it when you +like, if you'll only ask for it.” + +Richelieu wondered if he was dreaming! This unexpected mildness--this +inexplicable tremor in his sister's voice: it must be some occult +influence of the night season on the sisterly mind, possibly akin to a +fear of ghosts! He made a mental note of it in view of future favors, +yet for the moment he felt embarrassedly gratified. “Ye ain't wantin' +anything, Minty,” he said affectionately; “a pail o' cold water from the +far spring--no nothin'?” He made an ostentatious movement as if to +rise, yet sufficiently protracted to prevent any hasty acceptance of his +prodigal offer. + +“No, dear,” she said, still gazing at him with an absorbed look in her +dark eyes. + +Richelieu felt a slight creepy sensation under that lonely far-off gaze. +“Your eyes look awful big at night, Minty,” he said. He would have added +“and pretty,” but she was his sister, and he had the lofty fraternal +conviction of his duty in repressing the inordinate vanity of the sex. +“Ye're sure ye ain't wantin' nothin'?” + +“Not now, dear.” She paused a moment, and then said deliberately: “But +you wouldn't mind turnin' out after sun-up and runnin' an errand for me +over to The Lookout?” + +Richelieu's eyes sparkled so suddenly that even in her absorption +Minty noticed the change. “But ye're not goin' to tarry over there, ner +gossip--you hear? Yer to take this yer message. Yer to say 'that it will +be onpossible for me to come back there, on account--on account of--'” + +“Important business,” suggested Richelieu; “that's the perlite style.” + +“Ef you like.” She leaned over the bed and put her lips to his forehead, +still damp with the dews of sleep, and then to his long-lashed lids. +“Mind Nip!”--the squirrel--he practically suggested. For an instant +their blond curls mingled on the pillow. “Now go to sleep,” she said +curtly. + +But Richelieu had taken her white neck in the short strangulatory hug of +the small boy, and held her fast. “Ye'll let me put on my best pants?” + +“Yes.” + +“And wear that ring?” + +“Yes”--a little sadly. + +“Then yer kin count me in, Minty; and see here”--his voice sank to a +confidential whisper--“mebbee some day ye'll be beholden to ME for a lot +o' real jewelry.” + +She returned slowly to her room, and, opening the window, looked out +upon the night. The same moon that had lent such supererogatory grace to +the natural beauty of The Lookout, here seemed to have failed; as Minty +had, in disguising the relentless limitations of Nature or the cruel +bonds of custom. The black plain of granite, under its rays, appeared +only to extend its poverty to some remoter barrier; the blackened stumps +of the burnt forest stood bleaker against the sky, like broken and +twisted pillars of iron. The cavity of the broken ledge where Richelieu +had prospected was a hideous chasm of bluish blackness, over which a +purple vapor seemed to hover; the “brush dump” beside the house showed +a cavern of writhing and distorted objects stiffened into dark rigidity. +She had often looked upon the prospect: it had never seemed so hard and +changeless; yet she accepted it, as she had accepted it before. + +She turned away, undressed herself mechanically, and went to bed. She +had an idea that she had been very foolish; that her escape from +being still more foolish was something miraculous, and in some measure +connected with Providence, her father, her little brother, and her dead +mother, whose dress she had recklessly spoiled. But that she had even so +slightly touched the bitterness and glory of renunciation--as written +of heroines and fine ladies by novelists and poets--never entered the +foolish head of Minty Sharpe, the blacksmith's daughter. + + + + +CHAPER IV. + + +It was a little after daybreak next morning that Mainwaring awoke from +the first unrefreshing night he had passed at The Lookout. He was so +feverish and restless that he dressed himself at sunrise, and cautiously +stepped out upon the still silent veranda. The chairs which he and +Louise Macy had occupied were still, it seemed to him, conspicuously +confidential with each other, and he separated them, but as he looked +down into the Great Canyon at his feet he was conscious of some +undefinable change in the prospect. A slight mist was rising from the +valley, as if it were the last of last night's illusions; the first +level sunbeams were obtrusively searching, and the keen morning air had +a dryly practical insistence which irritated him, until a light footstep +on the farther end of the veranda caused him to turn sharply. + +It was the singular apparition of a small boy, bearing a surprising +resemblance to Minty Sharpe, and dressed in an unique fashion. On a +tumbled sea of blond curls a “chip” sailor hat, with a broad red ribbon, +rode jauntily. But here the nautical suggestion changed, as had the +desire of becoming a pirate which induced it. A red shirt, with a white +collar, and a yellow plaid ribbon tie, that also recalled Minty Sharpe, +lightly turned the suggestion of his costume to mining. Short black +velvet trousers, coming to his knee, and ostentatiously new short-legged +boots, with visible straps like curling ears, completed the entirely +original character of his lower limbs. + +Mainwaring, always easily gentle and familiar with children and his +inferiors, looked at him with an encouraging smile. Richelieu--for it +was he--advanced gravely and held out his hand, with the cameo ring +apparent. Mainwaring, with equal gravity, shook it warmly, and removed +his hat. Richelieu, keenly observant, did the same. + +“Is Jim Bradley out yet?” asked Richelieu, carelessly. + +“No; I think not. But I'm Frank Mainwaring. Will I do?” + +Richelieu smiled. The dimples, the white teeth, the dark, laughing eyes, +were surely Minty's? + +“I'm Richelieu,” he rejoined with equal candor. + +“Richelieu?” + +“Yes. That Frenchman--the Lord Cardinal--you know. Mar saw Forrest do +him out in St. Louis.” + +“Do him?” + +“Yes, in the theayter.” + +With a confused misconception of his meaning, Mainwaring tried to +recall the historical dress of the great Cardinal and fit it to the +masquerader--if such he were--before him. But Richelieu relieved him by +adding,-- + +“Richelieu Sharpe.” + +“Oh, that's your NAME!” said Mainwaring, cheerfully. “Then you're Miss +Minty's brother. I know her. How jolly lucky!” + +They both shook hands again. Richelieu, eager to get rid of the burden +of his sister's message, which he felt was in the way of free-and-easy +intercourse with this charming stranger, looked uneasily towards the +house. + +“I say,” said Mainwaring, “if you're in a hurry, you'd better go in +there and knock. I hear some one stirring in the kitchen.” + +Richelieu nodded, but first went back to the steps of the veranda, +picked up a small blue knotted handkerchief, apparently containing some +heavy objects, and repassed Mainwaring. + +“What! have you cut it, Richelieu, with your valuables? What have you +got there?” + +“Specimins,” said Richelieu, shortly, and vanished. + +He returned presently. “Well, Cardinal, did you see anybody?” asked +Mainwaring. + +“Mrs. Bradley; but Jim's over to the mill. I'm goin' there.” + +“Did you see Miss Macy?” continued Mainwaring, carelessly. + +“Loo?” + +“Loo!--well; yes.” + +“No. She's philanderin' with Captain Greyson.” + +“Philandering with Greyson?” echoed Mainwaring, in wonder. + +“Yes; on horseback on the ridge.” + +“You mean she's riding out with Mr.--with Captain Greyson?” + +“Yes; ridin' AND philanderin',” persisted Richelieu. + +“And what do you call philandering?” + +“Well; I reckon you and she oughter know,” returned Richelieu, with a +precocious air. + +“Certainly,” said Mainwaring, with a faint smile. Richelieu really was +like Minty. + +There was a long silence. This young Englishman was becoming exceedingly +uninteresting. Richelieu felt that he was gaining neither profit nor +amusement, and losing time. “I'm going,” he said. + +“Good morning,” said Mainwaring, without looking up. + +Richelieu picked up his specimens, thoroughly convinced of the +stranger's glittering deceitfulness, and vanished. + +It was nearly eight o'clock when Mrs. Bradley came from the house. She +apologized, with a slightly distrait smile, for the tardiness of the +household. “Mr. Bradley stayed at the mill all night, and will not be +here until breakfast, when he brings your friend Mr. Richardson with +him”--Mainwaring scarcely repressed a movement of impatience--“who +arrives early. It's unfortunate that Miss Sharpe can't come to-day.” + +In his abstraction Mainwaring did not notice that Mrs. Bradley slightly +accented Minty's formal appellation, and said carelessly,-- + +“Oh, that's why her brother came over here so early!” + +“Did YOU see him?” asked Mrs. Bradley, almost abruptly. + +“Yes. He is an amusing little beggar; but I think he shares his sister's +preference for Mr. Bradley. He deserted me here in the veranda for him +at the mill.” + +“Louise will keep you company as soon as she has changed her dress,” + continued Mrs. Bradley. “She was out riding early this morning with a +friend. She's very fond of early morning rides.” + +“AND philandering,” repeated Mainwaring to himself. It was quite natural +for Miss Macy to ride out in the morning, after the fashion of +the country, with an escort; but why had the cub insisted on the +“philandering”? He had said, “AND philandering,” distinctly. It was a +nasty thing for him to say. Any other fellow but he, Mainwaring, might +misunderstand the whole thing. Perhaps he ought to warn her--but no! he +could not repeat the gossip of a child, and that child the brother of +one of her inferiors. But was Minty an inferior? Did she and Minty talk +together about this fellow Greyson? At all events, it would only revive +the awkwardness of the preceding day, and he resolved to say nothing. + +He was rewarded by a half-inquiring, half-confiding look in Louise's +bright eyes, when she presently greeted him on the veranda. “She had +quite forgotten,” she said, “to tell him last night of her morning's +engagement; indeed, she had half forgotten IT. It used to be a favorite +practice of hers, with Captain Greyson; but she had lately given it up. +She believed she had not ridden since--since--” + +“Since when?” asked Mainwaring. + +“Well, since you were ill,” she said frankly. + +A quick pleasure shone in Mainwaring's cheek and eye; but Louise's +pretty lids did not drop, nor her faint, quiet bloom deepen. Breakfast +was already waiting when Mr. Richardson arrived alone. + +He explained that Mr. Bradley had some important and unexpected business +which had delayed him, but which, he added, “Mr. Bradley says may +prove interesting enough to you to excuse his absence this morning.” + Mainwaring was not displeased that his critical and observant host was +not present at their meeting. Louise Macy was, however, as demurely +conscious of the different bearing of the two compatriots. Richardson's +somewhat self-important patronage of the two ladies, and that +Californian familiarity he had acquired, changed to a certain uneasy +deference towards Mainwaring; while the younger Englishman's slightly +stiff and deliberate cordiality was, nevertheless, mingled with a +mysterious understanding that appeared innate and unconscious. Louise +was quick to see that these two men, more widely divergent in quality +than any two of her own countrymen, were yet more subtly connected +by some unknown sympathy than the most equal of Americans. Minty's +prophetic belief of the effect of the two women upon Richardson was +certainly true as regarded Mrs. Bradley. The banker--a large material +nature--was quickly fascinated by the demure, puritanic graces of that +lady, and was inclined to exhibit a somewhat broad and ostentatious +gallantry that annoyed Mainwaring. When they were seated alone on +the veranda, which the ladies had discreetly left to them, Richardson +said,-- + +“Odd I didn't hear of Bradley's wife before. She seems a spicy, pretty, +comfortable creature. Regularly thrown away with him up here.” + +Mainwaring replied coldly that she was “an admirable helpmeet of a very +admirable man,” not, however, without an uneasy recollection of her +previous confidences respecting her husband. “They have been most +thoroughly good and kind to me; my own brother and sister could not have +done more. And certainly not with better taste or delicacy,” he added, +markedly. + +“Certainly, certainly,” said Richardson, hurriedly. “I wrote to Lady +Mainwaring that you were taken capital care of by some very honest +people; and that--” + +“Lady Mainwaring already knows what I think of them, and what she owes +to their kindness,” said Mainwaring, dryly. + +“True, true,” said Richardson, apologetically. “Of course you must have +seen a good deal of them. I only know Bradley in a business way. He's +been trying to get the Bank to help him to put up some new mills here; +but we didn't see it. I dare say he is good company--rather amusing, +eh?” + +Mainwaring had the gift of his class of snubbing by the polite and +forgiving oblivion of silence. Richardson shifted uneasily in his chair, +but continued with assumed carelessness:-- + +“No; I only knew of this cousin, Miss Macy. I heard of her when she +was visiting some friends in Menlo Park last year. Rather an attractive +girl. They say Colonel Johnson, of Sacramento, took quite a fancy +to her--it would have been a good match, I dare say, for he is very +rich--but the thing fell through in some way. Then, they say, SHE wanted +to marry that Spaniard, young Pico, of the Amador Ranche; but his family +wouldn't hear of it. Somehow, she's deuced unlucky. I suppose she'll +make a mess of it with Captain Greyson she was out riding with this +morning.” + +“Didn't the Bank think Bradley's mills a good investment?” asked +Mainwaring quietly, when Richardson paused. + +“Not with him in it; he is not a business man, you know.” + +“I thought he was. He seems to me an energetic man, who knows his work, +and is not afraid to look after it himself.” + +“That's just it. He has got absurd ideas of co-operating with his +workmen, you know, and doing everything slowly and on a limited scale. +The only thing to be done is to buy up all the land on this ridge, run +off the settlers, freeze out all the other mills, and put it into a big +San Francisco company on shares. That's the only way we would look at +it.” + +“But you don't consider the investment bad, even from HIS point of +view?” + +“Perhaps not.” + +“And you only decline it because it isn't big enough for the Bank?” + +“Exactly.” + +“Richardson,” said Mainwaring, slowly rising, putting his hands in his +trousers pockets, and suddenly looking down upon the banker from the +easy level of habitual superiority, “I wish you'd attend to this thing +for me. I desire to make some return to Mr. Bradley for his kindness. I +wish to give him what help he wants--in his own way--you understand. I +wish it, and I believe my father wishes it, too. If you'd like him to +write to you to that effect--” + +“By no means, it's not at all necessary,” said Richardson, dropping with +equal suddenness into his old-world obsequiousness. “I shall certainly +do as you wish. It is not a bad investment, Mr. Mainwaring, and as you +suggest, a very proper return for their kindness. And, being here, it +will come quite naturally for me to take up the affair again.” + +“And--I say, Richardson.” + +“Yes, sir?” + +“As these ladies are rather short-handed in their domestic service, you +know, perhaps you'd better not stay to luncheon or dinner, but go on to +the Summit House--it's only a mile or two farther--and come back here +this evening. I shan't want you until then.” + +“Certainly!” stammered Richardson. “I'll just take leave of the ladies!” + +“It's not at all necessary,” said Mainwaring, quietly; “you would only +disturb them in their household duties. I'll tell them what I've done +with you, if they ask. You'll find your stick and hat in the passage, +and you can leave the veranda by these steps. By the way, you had better +manage at the Summit to get some one to bring my traps from here to be +forwarded to Sacramento to-morrow. I'll want a conveyance, or a horse +of some kind, myself, for I've given up walking for a while; but we can +settle about that to-night. Come early. Good morning?” + +He accompanied his thoroughly subjugated countryman--who, however, far +from attempting to reassert himself, actually seemed easier and more +cheerful in his submission--to the end of the veranda, and watched +him depart. As he turned back, he saw the pretty figure of Louise Macy +leaning against the doorway. How graceful and refined she looked in that +simple morning dress! What wonder that she was admired by Greyson, by +Johnson, and by that Spaniard!--no, by Jove, it was SHE that wanted to +marry him! + +“What have you sent away Mr. Richardson for?” asked the young girl, with +a half-reproachful, half-mischievous look in her bright eyes. + +“I packed him off because I thought it was a little too hard on you and +Mrs. Bradley to entertain him without help.” + +“But as he was OUR guest, you might have left that to us,” said Miss +Macy. + +“By Jove! I never thought of that,” said Mainwaring, coloring in +consternation. “Pray forgive me, Miss Macy--but you see I knew the man, +and could say it, and you couldn't.” + +“Well, I forgive you, for you look really so cut up,” said Louise, +laughing. “But I don't know what Jenny will say of your disposing of her +conquest so summarily.” She stopped and regarded him more attentively. +“Has he brought you any bad news? if so, it's a pity you didn't send him +away before. He's quite spoiling our cure.” + +Mainwaring thought bitterly that he had. “But it's a cure for all that, +Miss Macy,” he said, with an attempt at cheerfulness, “and being a cure, +you see, there's no longer an excuse for my staying here. I have been +making arrangements for leaving here to-morrow.” + +“So soon?” + +“Do you think it soon, Miss Macy?” asked Mainwaring, turning pale in +spite of himself. + +“I quite forgot--that you were here as an invalid only, and that we owe +our pleasure to the accident of your pain.” + +She spoke a little artificially, he thought, yet her cheeks had not lost +their pink bloom, nor her eyes their tranquillity. Had he heard Minty's +criticism he might have believed that the organic omission noticed by +her was a fact. + +“And now that your good work as Sister of Charity is completed, you'll +be able to enter the world of gayety again with a clear conscience,” + said Mainwaring, with a smile that he inwardly felt was a miserable +failure. “You'll be able to resume your morning rides, you know, which +the wretched invalid interrupted.” + +Louise raised her clear eyes to his, without reproach, indignation, or +even wonder. He felt as if he had attempted an insult and failed. + +“Does my cousin know you are going so soon?” she asked finally. + +“No, I did not know myself until to-day. You see,” he added hastily, +while his honest blood blazoned the lie in his cheek, “I've heard of +some miserable business affairs that will bring me back to England +sooner that I expected.” + +“I think you should consider your health more important than any mere +business,” said Louise. “I don't mean that you should remain HERE,” she +added with a hasty laugh, “but it would be a pity, now that you have +reaped the benefit of rest and taking care of yourself, that you should +not make it your only business to seek it elsewhere.” + +Mainwaring longed to say that within the last half hour, living or dying +had become of little moment to him; but he doubted the truth or efficacy +of this timeworn heroic of passion. He felt, too, that anything he said +was a mere subterfuge for the real reason of his sudden departure. And +how was he to question her as to that reason? In escaping from these +subterfuges--he was compelled to lie again. With an assumption of +changing the subject, he said calmly, “Richardson thought he had met you +before--in Menlo Park, I think.” + +Amazed at the evident irrelevance of the remark, Louise said coldly, +that she did not remember having seen him before. + +“I think it was at a Mr. Johnson's--or WITH a Mr. Johnson--or perhaps at +one of those Spanish ranches--I think he mentioned some name like Pico!” + +Louise looked at him wonderingly for an instant, and then gave way to +a frank, irrepressible laugh, which lent her delicate but rather set +little face all the color he had missed. Partially relieved by her +unconcern, and yet mortified that he had only provoked her sense of the +ludicrous, he tried to laugh also. + +“Then, to be quite plain,” said Louise, wiping her now humid eyes, “you +want me to understand that you really didn't pay sufficient attention +to hear correctly! Thank you; that's a pretty English compliment, I +suppose.” + +“I dare say you wouldn't call it 'philandering'?” + +“I certainly shouldn't, for I don't know what 'philandering' means.” + +Mainwaring could not reply, with Richelieu, “You ought to know”; nor did +he dare explain what he thought it meant, and how he knew it. Louise, +however, innocently solved the difficulty. + +“There's a country song I've heard Minty sing,” she said. “It runs-- + + Come, Philander, let us be a-marchin', + Every one for his true love a-sarchin' + Choose your true love now or never. . . . + +Have you been listening to her also?” + +“No,” said Mainwaring, with a sudden incomprehensible, but utterly +irrepressible, resolution; “but I'M 'a-marchin',' you know, and perhaps +I must 'choose my true love now or never.' Will you help me, Miss Macy?” + +He drew gently near her. He had become quite white, but also very manly, +and it struck her, more deeply, thoroughly, and conscientiously sincere +than any man who had before addressed her. She moved slightly away, as +if to rest herself by laying both hands upon the back of the chair. + +“Where do you expect to begin your 'sarchin''?” she said, leaning on +the chair and tilting it before her; “or are you as vague as usual as to +locality? Is it at some 'Mr. Johnson' or 'Mr. Pico,' or--” + +“Here,” he interrupted boldly. + +“I really think you ought to first tell my cousin that you are going +away to-morrow,” she said, with a faint smile. “It's such short notice. +She's just in there.” She nodded her pretty head, without raising her +eyes, towards the hall. + +“But it may not be so soon,” said Mainwaring. + +“Oh, then the 'sarchin'' is not so important?” said Louise, raising +her head, and looking towards the hall with some uneasy but indefinable +feminine instinct. + +She was right; the sitting-room door opened, and Mrs. Bradley made her +smiling appearance. + +“Mr. Mainwaring was just looking for you,” said Louise, for the first +time raising her eyes to him. “He's not only sent off Mr. Richardson, +but he's going away himself to-morrow.” + +Mrs. Bradley looked from the one to the other in mute wonder. Mainwaring +cast an imploring glance at Louise, which had the desired effect. Much +more seriously, and in a quaint, business-like way, the young girl took +it upon herself to explain to Mrs. Bradley that Richardson had brought +the invalid some important news that would, unfortunately, not only +shorten his stay in America, but even compel him to leave The Lookout +sooner than he expected, perhaps to-morrow. Mainwaring thanked her with +his eyes, and then turned to Mrs. Bradley. + +“Whether I go to-morrow or next day,” he said with simple and earnest +directness, “I intend, you know, to see you soon again, either here or +in my own home in England. I do not know,” he added with marked gravity, +“that I have succeeded in convincing you that I have made your family +already well known to my people, and that”--he fixed his eyes with a +meaning look on Louise--“no matter when, or in what way, you come to +them, your place is made ready for you. You may not like them, you know: +the governor is getting to be an old man--perhaps too old for young +Americans--but THEY will like YOU, and you must put up with that. My +mother and sisters know Miss Macy as well as I do, and will make her one +of the family.” + +The conscientious earnestness with which these apparent +conventionalities were uttered, and some occult quality of quiet +conviction in the young man's manner, brought a pleasant sparkle to the +eyes of Mrs. Bradley and Louise. + +“But,” said Mrs. Bradley, gayly, “our going to England is quite beyond +our present wildest dreams; nothing but a windfall, an unexpected +rise in timber, or even the tabooed hotel speculation, could make it +possible.” + +“But I shall take the liberty of trying to present it to Mr. Bradley +tonight in some practical way that may convince even his critical +judgment,” said Mainwaring, still seriously. “It will be,” he added more +lightly, “the famous testimonial of my cure which I promised you.” + +“And you will find Mr. Bradley so sceptical that you will be obliged to +defer your going,” said Mrs. Bradley, triumphantly. “Come, Louise, we +must not forget that we have still Mr. Mainwaring's present comfort to +look after; that Minty has basely deserted us, and that we ourselves +must see that the last days of our guest beneath our roof are not +remembered for their privation.” + +She led Louise away with a half-mischievous suggestion of maternal +propriety, and left Mainwaring once more alone on the veranda. + +He had done it! Certainly she must have understood his meaning, and +there was nothing left for him to do but to acquaint Bradley with his +intentions to-night, and press her for a final answer in the morning. +There would be no indelicacy then in asking her for an interview more +free from interruption than this public veranda. Without conceit, he +did not doubt what the answer would be. His indecision, his sudden +resolution to leave her, had been all based upon the uncertainty of HIS +own feelings, the propriety of HIS declaration, the possibility of some +previous experience of hers that might compromise HIM. Convinced by +her unembarrassed manner of her innocence, or rather satisfied of her +indifference to Richardson's gossip, he had been hurried by his feelings +into an unexpected avowal. Brought up in the perfect security of his +own social position, and familiarly conscious--without vanity--of +its importance and power in such a situation, he believed, without +undervaluing Louise's charms or independence, that he had no one else +than himself to consult. Even the slight uneasiness that still pursued +him was more due to his habitual conscientiousness of his own intention +than to any fear that she would not fully respond to it. Indeed, with +his conservative ideas of proper feminine self-restraint, Louise's calm +passivity and undemonstrative attitude were a proof of her superiority; +had she blushed overmuch, cried, or thrown herself into his arms, he +would have doubted the wisdom of so easy a selection. It was true he had +known her scarcely three weeks; if he chose to be content with that, his +own accessible record of three centuries should be sufficient for her, +and condone any irregularity. + +Nevertheless, as an hour slipped away and Louise did not make her +appearance, either on the veranda or in the little sitting-room off the +hall, Mainwaring became more uneasy as to the incompleteness of their +interview. Perhaps a faint suspicion of the inadequacy of her response +began to trouble him; but he still fatuously regarded it rather as +owing to his own hurried and unfinished declaration. It was true that +he hadn't said half what he intended to say; it was true that she might +have misunderstood it as the conventional gallantry of the situation, +as--terrible thought!--the light banter of the habitual love-making +American, to which she had been accustomed; perhaps even now she +relegated him to the level of Greyson, and this accounted for her +singular impassiveness--an impassiveness that certainly was singular +now he reflected upon it--that might have been even contempt. The last +thought pricked his deep conscientiousness; he walked hurriedly up and +down the veranda, and then, suddenly re-entering his room, took up a +sheet of note-paper, and began to write to her:-- + + +“Can you grant me a few moments' interview alone? I cannot bear you +should think that what I was trying to tell you when we were interrupted +was prompted by anything but the deepest sincerity and conviction, +or that I am willing it should be passed over lightly by you or be +forgotten. Pray give me a chance of proving it, by saying you will see +me. F. M.” + + +But how should he convey this to her? His delicacy revolted against +handing it to her behind Mrs. Bradley's back, or the prestidigitation of +slipping it into her lap or under her plate before them at luncheon; he +thought for an instant of the Chinaman, but gentlemen--except in that +“mirror of nature” the stage--usually hesitate to suborn other people's +servants, or entrust a woman's secret to her inferiors. He remembered +that Louise's room was at the farther end of the house, and its low +window gave upon the veranda, and was guarded at night by a film of +white and blue curtains that were parted during the day, to allow +a triangular revelation of a pale blue and white draped interior. +Mainwaring reflected that the low inside window ledge was easily +accessible from the veranda, would afford a capital lodgment for the +note, and be quickly seen by the fair occupant of the room on entering. +He sauntered slowly past the window; the room was empty, the moment +propitious. A slight breeze was stirring the blue ribbons of the +curtain; it would be necessary to secure the note with something; he +returned along the veranda to the steps, where he had noticed a small +irregular stone lying, which had evidently escaped from Richelieu's bag +of treasure specimens, and had been overlooked by that ingenuous child. +It was of a pretty peacock-blue color, and, besides securing a paper, +would be sure to attract her attention. He placed his note on the inside +ledge, and the blue stone atop, and went away with a sense of relief. + +Another half hour passed without incident. He could hear the voices +of the two women in the kitchen and dining-room. After a while they +appeared to cease, and he heard the sound of an opening door. It +then occurred to him that the veranda was still too exposed for a +confidential interview, and he resolved to descend the steps, pass +before the windows of the kitchen where Louise might see him, and +penetrate the shrubbery, where she might be induced to follow him. They +would not be interrupted nor overheard there. + +But he had barely left the veranda before the figure of Richelieu, +who had been patiently waiting for Mainwaring's disappearance, emerged +stealthily from the shrubbery. He had discovered his loss on handing his +“fire assays” to the good-humored Bradley for later examination, and he +had retraced his way, step by step, looking everywhere for his missing +stone with the unbounded hopefulness, lazy persistency, and lofty +disregard for time and occupation known only to the genuine boy. +He remembered to have placed his knotted bag upon the veranda, and, +slipping off his stiff boots slowly and softly, slid along against the +wall of the house, looking carefully on the floor, and yet preserving +a studied negligence of demeanor, with one hand in his pocket, and his +small mouth contracted into a singularly soothing and almost voiceless +whistle--Richelieu's own peculiar accomplishment. But no stone appeared. +Like most of his genus he was superstitious, and repeated to himself the +cabalistic formula: “Losin's seekin's, findin's keepin's”--presumed +to be of great efficacy in such cases--with religious fervor. He had +laboriously reached the end of the veranda when he noticed the open +window of Louise's room, and stopped as a perfunctory duty to look in. +And then Richelieu Sharpe stood for an instant utterly confounded and +aghast at this crowning proof of the absolute infamy and sickening +enormity of Man. + +There was HIS stone--HIS, RICHELIEU'S, OWN SPECIMEN, carefully gathered +by himself and none other--and now stolen, abstracted, “skyugled,” + “smouged,” “hooked” by this “rotten, skunkified, long-legged, +splay-footed, hoss-laughin', nigger-toothed, or'nary despot” And, +worse than all, actually made to do infamous duty as a “love token”--a +“candy-gift!”--a “philanderin' box” to HIS, Richelieu's, girl--for +Louise belonged to that innocent and vague outside seraglio of +Richelieu's boyish dreams--and put atop of a letter to her! and +Providence permitted such an outrage! “Wot was he, Richelieu, sent to +school for, and organized wickedness in the shape of gorilla Injins like +this allowed to ride high horses rampant over Californey!” He looked +at the heavens in mute appeal. And then--Providence not immediately +interfering--he thrust his own small arm into the window, regained his +priceless treasure, and fled swiftly. + +A fateful silence ensued. The wind slightly moved the curtain outward, +as if in a playful attempt to follow him, and then subsided. A moment +later, apparently re-enforced by other winds, or sympathizing with +Richelieu, it lightly lifted the unlucky missive and cast it softly from +the window. But here another wind, lying in wait, caught it cleverly, +and tossed it, in a long curve, into the abyss. For an instant it seemed +to float lazily, as on the mirrored surface of a lake, until, turning +upon its side, it suddenly darted into utter oblivion. + +When Mainwaring returned from the shrubbery, he went softly to the +window. The disappearance of the letter and stone satisfied him of the +success of his stratagem, and for the space of three hours relieved his +anxiety. But at the end of that time, finding no response from Louise, +his former uneasiness returned. Was she offended, or--the first doubt of +her acceptance of him crossed his mind! + +A sudden and inexplicable sense of shame came upon him. At the same +moment, he heard his name called from the steps, turned--and beheld +Minty. + +Her dark eyes were shining with a pleasant light, and her lips parted on +her white teeth with a frank, happy smile. She advanced and held out her +hand. He took it with a mingling of disappointment and embarrassment. + +“You're wondering why I kem on here, arter I sent word this morning that +I kelkilated not to come. Well, 'twixt then and now suthin' 's happened. +We've had fine doin's over at our house, you bet! Pop don't know which +end he's standin' on; and I reckon that for about ten minutes I didn't +know my own name. But ez soon ez I got fairly hold o' the hull thing, +and had it put straight in my mind, I sez to myself, Minty Sharpe, sez +I, the first thing for you to do now, is to put on yer bonnet and shawl, +and trapse over to Jim Bradley's and help them two womenfolks get dinner +for themselves and that sick stranger. And,” continued Minty, throwing +herself into a chair and fanning her glowing face with her apron, “yer I +am!” + +“But you have not told me WHAT has happened,” said Mainwaring, with a +constrained smile, and an uneasy glance towards the house. + +“That's so,” said Minty, with a brilliant laugh. “I clean forgot the +hull gist of the thing. Well, we're rich folks now--over thar' on Barren +Ledge! That onery brother of mine, Richelieu, hez taken some of his +specimens over to Jim Bradley to be tested. And Bradley, just to please +that child, takes 'em; and not an hour ago Bradley comes running, likety +switch, over to Pop to tell him to put up his notices, for the hull of +that ledge where the forge stands is a mine o' silver and copper. Afore +ye knew it, Lordy! half the folks outer the Summit and the mill was +scattered down thar all over it. Richardson--that stranger ez knows +you--kem thar too with Jim, and he allows, ef Bradley's essay is right, +it's worth more than a hundred thousand dollars ez it stands!” + +“I suppose I must congratulate you, Miss Sharpe,” said Mainwaring with +an attempt at interest, but his attention still preoccupied with the +open doorway. + +“Oh, THEY know all about it!” said Minty, following the direction of his +abstracted eyes with a slight darkening of her own, “I jest kem out o' +the kitchen the other way, and Jim sent 'em a note; but I allowed I'd +tell YOU myself. Specially ez you are going away to-morrow.” + +“Who said I was going away to-morrow?” asked Mainwaring, uneasily. + +“Loo Macy!” + +“Ah--she did? But I may change my mind, you know!” he continued, with a +faint smile. + +Minty shook her curls decisively. “I reckon SHE knows,” she said dryly, +“she's got law and gospel for wot she says. But yer she comes. Ask her! +Look yer, Loo,” she added, as the two women appeared at the doorway, +with a certain exaggeration of congratulatory manner that struck +Mainwaring as being as artificial and disturbed as his own, “didn't Sir +Francis yer say he was going to-morrow?” + +“That's what I understood!” returned Louise, with cold astonishment, +letting her clear indifferent eyes fall upon Mainwaring. “I do not know +that he has changed his mind.” + +“Unless, as Miss Sharpe is a great capitalist now, she is willing to use +her powers of persuasion,” added Mrs. Bradley, with a slight acidulous +pointing of her usual prim playfulness. + +“I reckon Minty Sharpe's the same ez she allus wos, unless more so,” + returned Minty, with an honest egotism that carried so much conviction +to the hearer as to condone its vanity. “But I kem yer to do a day's +work, gals, and I allow to pitch in and do it, and not sit yer swoppin' +compliments and keeping HIM from packin' his duds. Onless,” she stopped, +and looked around at the uneasy, unsympathetic circle with a faint +tremulousness of lip that belied the brave black eyes above it, “onless +I'm in yer way.” + +The two women sprang forward with a feminine bewildering excess of +protestation; and Mainwaring, suddenly pierced through his outer selfish +embarrassment to his more honest depths, stammered quickly-- + +“Look here, Miss Sharpe, if you think of running away again, after +having come all the way here to make us share the knowledge of your good +fortune and your better heart, by Jove! I'll go back with you.” + +But here the two women effusively hurried her away from the dangerous +proximity of such sympathetic honesty, and a moment later Mainwaring +heard her laughing voice, as of old, ringing in the kitchen. And then, +as if unconsciously responding to the significant common sense that lay +in her last allusion to him, he went to his room and grimly began his +packing. + +He did not again see Louise alone. At their informal luncheon the +conversation turned upon the more absorbing topic of the Sharpes' +discovery, its extent, and its probable effect upon the fortunes of +the locality. He noticed, abstractedly, that both Mrs. Bradley and her +cousin showed a real or assumed scepticism of its value. This did +not disturb him greatly, except for its intended check upon Minty's +enthusiasm. He was more conscious, perhaps,--with a faint touch of +mortified vanity,--that his own contemplated departure was of lesser +importance than this local excitement. Yet in his growing conviction +that all was over--if, indeed, it had ever begun--between himself and +Louise, he was grateful to this natural diversion of incident which +spared them both an interval of embarrassing commonplaces. And, with +the suspicion of some indefinable insincerity--either of his own or +Louise's--haunting him, Minty's frank heartiness and outspoken loyalty +gave him a strange relief. It seemed to him as if the clear cool breath +of the forest had entered with her homely garments, and the steadfast +truth of Nature were incarnate in her shining eyes. How far this poetic +fancy would have been consistent or even coexistent with any gleam of +tenderness or self-forgetfulness in Louise's equally pretty orbs, I +leave the satirical feminine reader to determine. + +It was late when Bradley at last returned, bringing further and more +complete corroboration of the truth of Sharpe's good fortune. Two +experts had arrived, one from Pine Flat and another from the Summit, and +upon this statement Richardson had offered to purchase an interest in +the discovery that would at once enable the blacksmith to develop his +mine. “I shouldn't wonder, Mainwaring,” he added cheerfully, “if he'd +put you into it, too, and make your eternal fortune.” + +“With larks falling from the skies all round you, it's a pity YOU +couldn't get put into something,” said Mrs. Bradley, straightening her +pretty brows. + +“I'm not a gold-miner, my dear,” said Bradley, pleasantly. + +“Nor a gold-finder,” returned his wife, with a cruel little depression +of her pink nostrils, “but you can work all night in that stupid mill +and then,” she added in a low voice, to escape Minty's attention, “spend +the whole of the next day examining and following up a boy's discovery +that his own relations had been too lazy and too ignorant to understand +and profit by. I suppose that next you will be hunting up a site on the +OTHER SIDE of the Canyon, where somebody else can put up a hotel and +ruin your own prospects.” + +A sensitive shadow of pain quickly dimmed Bradley's glance--not the +first or last time evidently, for it was gradually bringing out a +background of sadness in his intelligent eyes. But the next moment he +turned kindly to Mainwaring, and began to deplore the necessity of his +early departure, which Richardson had already made known to him with +practical and satisfying reasons. + +“I hope you won't forget, my dear fellow, that your most really urgent +business is to look after your health; and if, hereafter, you'll only +remember the old Lookout enough to impress that fact upon you, I shall +feel that any poor service I have rendered you has been amply repaid.” + +Mainwaring, notwithstanding that he winced slightly at this fateful +echo of Louise's advice, returned the grasp of his friend's hand with an +honest pressure equal to his own. He longed now only for the coming of +Richardson, to complete his scheme of grateful benefaction to his host. + +The banker came fortunately as the conversation began to flag; and Mrs. +Bradley's half-coquettish ill-humor of a pretty woman, and Louise's +abstracted indifference, were becoming so noticeable as to even impress +Minty into a thoughtful taciturnity. The graciousness of his reception +by Mrs. Bradley somewhat restored his former ostentatious gallantry, and +his self-satisfied, domineering manner had enough masculine power in it +to favorably affect the three women, who, it must be confessed, were a +little bored by the finer abstractions of Bradley and Mainwaring. +After a few moments, Mainwaring rose and, with a significant glance at +Richardson to remind him of his proposed conference with Bradley, turned +to leave the room. He was obliged to pass Louise, who was sitting by the +table. His attention was suddenly arrested by something in her hand with +which she was listlessly playing. It was the stone which he had put on +his letter to her. + +As he had not been present when Bradley arrived, he did not know that +this fateful object had been brought home by his host, who, after +receiving it from Richelieu, had put it in his pocket to illustrate +his story of the discovery. On the contrary, it seemed that Louise's +careless exposure of his foolish stratagem was gratuitously and +purposely cruel. Nevertheless, he stopped and looked at her. + +“That's a queer stone you have there,” he said, in a tone which she +recognized as coldly and ostentatiously civil. + +“Yes,” she replied, without looking up; “it's the outcrop of that mine.” + She handed it to him as if to obviate any further remark. “I thought you +had seen it before.” + +“The outcrop,” he repeated dryly. “That is--it--it--it is the indication +or sign of something important that's below it--isn't it?” + +Louise shrugged her shoulders sceptically. “It don't follow. It's just +as likely to cover rubbish, after you've taken the trouble to look.” + +“Thanks,” he said, with measured gentleness, and passed quietly out of +the room. + +The moon had already risen when Bradley, with his brierwood pipe, +preceded Richardson upon the veranda. The latter threw his large frame +into Louise's rocking-chair near the edge of the abyss; Bradley, with +his own chair tilted against the side of the house after the national +fashion, waited for him to speak. The absence of Mainwaring and the +stimulus of Mrs. Bradley's graciousness had given the banker a certain +condescending familiarity, which Bradley received with amused and +ironical tolerance that his twinkling eyes made partly visible in the +darkness. + +“One of the things I wanted to talk to you about, Bradley, was that old +affair of the advance you asked for from the Bank. We did not quite see +our way to it then, and, speaking as a business man, it isn't really a +matter of business now; but it has lately been put to me in a light that +would make the doing of it possible--you understand? The fact of the +matter is this: Sir Robert Mainwaring, the father of the young +fellow you've got in your house, is one of our directors and +largest shareholders, and I can tell you--if you don't suspect it +already--you've been lucky, Bradley--deucedly lucky--to have had him in +your house and to have rendered him a service. He's the heir to one +of the largest landed estates in his country, one of the oldest county +families, and will step into the title some day. But, ahem!” he coughed +patronizingly, “you knew all that! No? Well, that charming wife of +yours, at least, does; for she's been talking about it. Gad, Bradley, it +takes those women to find out anything of that kind, eh?” + +The light in Bradley's eyes and his pipe went slowly out together. + +“Then we'll say that affair of the advance is as good as settled. It's +Sir Robert's wish, you understand, and this young fellow's wish,--and if +you'll come down to the Bank next week we'll arrange it for you; I +think you'll admit they're doing the handsome to you and yours. And +therefore,” he lowered his voice confidentially, “you'll see, Bradley, +that it will only be the honorable thing in you, you know, to look upon +the affair as finished, and, in fact, to do all you can”--he drew his +chair closer--“to--to--to drop this other foolishness.” + +“I don't think I quite understand you!” said Bradley, slowly. + +“But your wife does, if you don't,” returned Richardson, bluntly; “I +mean this foolish flirtation between Louise Macy and Mainwaring, which +is utterly preposterous. Why, man, it can't possibly come to anything, +and it couldn't be allowed for a moment. Look at his position and hers. +I should think, as a practical man, it would strike you--” + +“Only one thing strikes me, Richardson,” interrupted Bradley, in a +singularly distinct whisper, rising, and moving nearer the speaker; “it +is that you're sitting perilously near the edge of this veranda. For, by +the living God, if you don't take yourself out of that chair and out of +this house, I won't be answerable for the consequences!” + +“Hold on there a minute, will you?” said Mainwaring's voice from the +window. + +Both men turned towards it. A long leg was protruding from Mainwaring's +window; it was quickly followed by the other leg and body of the +occupant, and the next moment Mainwaring come towards the two men, with +his hands in his pockets. + +“Not so loud,” he said, looking towards the house. + +“Let that man go,” said Bradley, in a repressed voice. “You and I, +Mainwaring, can speak together afterwards.” + +“That man must stay until he hears what I have got to say,” said +Mainwaring, stepping between them. He was very white and grave in +the moonlight, but very quiet; and he did not take his hands from his +pockets. “I've listened to what he said because he came here on MY +business, which was simply to offer to do you a service. That was all, +Bradley, that I told him to do. This rot about what he expects of you in +return is his own impertinence. If you'd punched his head when he began +it, it would have been all right. But since he has begun it, before he +goes I think he ought to hear me tell you that I have already OFFERED +myself to Miss Macy, and she has REFUSED me! If she had given me the +least encouragement, I should have told you before. Further, I want to +say that, in spite of that man's insinuations, I firmly believe that no +one is aware of the circumstance except Miss Macy and myself.” + +“I had no idea of intimating that anything had happened that was not +highly honorable and creditable to you and the young lady,” began +Richardson hurriedly. + +“I don't know that it was necessary for you to have any ideas on the +subject at all,” said Mainwaring, sternly; “nor that, having been shown +how you have insulted this gentleman and myself, you need trouble us an +instant longer with your company. You need not come back. I will manage +my other affairs myself.” + +“Very well, Mr. Mainwaring--but--you may be sure that I shall certainly +take the first opportunity to explain myself to Sir Robert,” returned +Richardson as, with an attempt at dignity, he strode away. + +There was an interval of silence. + +“Don't be too hard upon a fellow, Bradley,” said Mainwaring as Bradley +remained dark and motionless in the shadow. “It is a poor return I'm +making you for your kindness, but I swear I never thought of anything +like--like--this.” + +“Nor did I,” said Bradley, bitterly. + +“I know it, and that's what makes it so infernally bad for me. Forgive +me, won't you? Think of me, old fellow, as the wretchedest ass you ever +met, but not such a cad as this would make me!” As Mainwaring stepped +out from the moonlight towards him with extended hand, Bradley grasped +it warmly. + +“Thanks--there--thanks, old fellow! And, Bradley--I say--don't +say anything to your wife, for I don't think she knows it. And, +Bradley--look here--I didn't like to be anything but plain before that +fellow; but I don't mind telling YOU, now that it's all over, that I +really think Louise--Miss Macy--didn't altogether understand me either.” + +With another shake of the hand they separated for the night. For a long +time after Mainwaring had gone, Bradley remained gazing thoughtfully +into the Great Canyon. He thought of the time when he had first come +there, full of life and enthusiasm, making an ideal world of his pure +and wholesome eyrie on the ledge. What else he thought will, probably, +never be known until the misunderstanding of honorable and chivalrous +men by a charming and illogical sex shall incite the audacious pen of +some more daring romancer. + +When he returned to the house, he said kindly to his wife, “I have been +thinking to-day about your hotel scheme, and I shall write to Sacramento +to-night to accept that capitalist's offer.” + + + + +CHAPER V. + + +The sun was just rising. In two years of mutation and change it had seen +the little cottage clinging like a swallow's nest to the rocky caves of +a great Sierran canyon give way to a straggling, many-galleried hotel, +and a dozen blackened chimneys rise above the barren tableland where +once had stood the lonely forge. To that conservative orb of light and +heat there must have been a peculiar satisfaction in looking down a few +hours earlier upon the battlements and gables of Oldenhurst, whose base +was deeply embedded in the matured foundations and settled traditions +of an English county. For the rising sun had for ten centuries found +Oldenhurst in its place, from the heavy stone terrace that covered the +dead-and-forgotten wall, where a Roman sentinel had once paced, to +the little grating in the cloistered quadrangle, where it had seen a +Cistercian brother place the morning dole. It had daily welcomed the +growth of this vast and picturesque excrescence of the times; it had +smiled every morning upon this formidable yet quaint incrustation +of power and custom, ignoring, as Oldenhurst itself had ignored, the +generations who possessed it, the men who built it, the men who carried +it with fire and sword, the men who had lied and cringed for it, the +King who had given it to a favorite, the few brave hearts who had died +for it in exile, and the one or two who had bought and paid for it. For +Oldenhurst had absorbed all these and more until it had become a story +of the past, incarnate in stone, greenwood, and flower; it had even +drained the life-blood from adjacent hamlets, repaying them with tumuli +growths like its own, in the shape of purposeless lodges, quaintly +incompetent hospitals and schools, and churches where the inestimable +blessing and knowledge of its gospel were taught and fostered. Nor had +it dealt more kindly with the gentry within its walls, sending some to +the scaffold, pillorying others in infamous office, reducing a few to +poverty, and halting its later guests with gout and paralysis. It had +given them in exchange the dubious immortality of a portrait gallery, +from which they stared with stony and equal resignation; it had +preserved their useless armor and accoutrements; it had set up their +marble effigies in churches or laid them in cross-legged attitudes to +trip up the unwary, until in death, as in life, they got between the +congregation and the Truth that was taught there. It had allowed an +Oldenhurst crusader, with a broken nose like a pugilist, on the strength +of his having been twice to the Holy Land, to hide the beautifully +illuminated Word from the lowlier worshipper on the humbler benches; it +had sent an iconoclastic Bishop of the Reformation to a nearer minster +to ostentatiously occupy the place of the consecrated image he had +overthrown. Small wonder that crowding the Oldenhurst retainers +gradually into smaller space, with occasional Sabbath glimpses of the +living rulers of Oldenhurst already in railed-off exaltation, it had +forced them to accept Oldenhurst as a synonym of eternity, and left the +knowledge of a higher Power to what time they should be turned out +to their longer sleep under the tender grass of the beautiful outer +churchyard. + +And even so, while every stone of the pile of Oldenhurst and every tree +in its leafy park might have been eloquent with the story of vanity, +selfishness, and unequal justice, it had been left to the infinite mercy +of Nature to seal their lips with a spell of beauty that left mankind +equally dumb; earth, air, and moisture had entered into a gentle +conspiracy to soften, mellow, and clothe its external blemishes of +breach and accident, its irregular design, its additions, accretions, +ruins, and lapses with a harmonious charm of outline and color; poets, +romancers, and historians had equally conspired to illuminate the +dark passages and uglier inconsistencies of its interior life with the +glamour of their own fancy. The fragment of menacing keep, with its +choked oubliettes, became a bower of tender ivy; the grim story of its +crimes, properly edited by a contemporary bard of the family, passed +into a charming ballad. Even the superstitious darkness of its religious +house had escaped through fallen roof and shattered wall, leaving only +the foliated and sun-pierced screen of front, with its rose-window and +pinnacle of cross behind. Pilgrims from all lands had come to see +it; fierce Republicans had crossed the seas to gaze at its mediaeval +outlines, and copy them in wood and stucco on their younger soil. +Politicians had equally pointed to it as a convincing evidence of their +own principles and in refutation of each other; and it had survived +both. For it was this belief in its own perpetuity that was its strength +and weakness. And that belief was never stronger than on this bright +August morning, when it was on the verge of dissolution. A telegram +brought to Sir Robert Mainwaring had even then as completely shattered +and disintegrated Oldenhurst, in all it was and all it meant, as if the +brown-paper envelope had been itself charged with the electric fluid. + +Sir Robert Mainwaring, whose family had for three centuries possessed +Oldenhurst, had received the news of his financial ruin; and the vast +pile which had survived the repeated invasion of superstition, force, +intrigue, and even progress, had succumbed to a foe its founders and +proprietors had loftily ignored and left to Jews and traders. The +acquisition of money, except by despoilment, gift, royal favor, or +inheritance, had been unknown at Oldenhurst. The present degenerate +custodian of its fortunes, staggering under the weight of its +sentimental mortmain already alluded to, had speculated in order to +keep up its material strength, that was gradually shrinking through +impoverished land and the ruined trade it had despised. He had invested +largely in California mines, and was the chief shareholder in a San +Francisco Bank. But the mines had proved worthless, the Bank had that +morning suspended payment, owing to the failure of a large land and +timber company on the Sierras which it had imprudently “carried.” + The spark which had demolished Oldenhurst had been fired from the new +telegraph-station in the hotel above the great Sierran canyon. + +There was a large house-party at Oldenhurst that morning. But it had +been a part of the history of the Mainwarings to accept defeat gallantly +and as became their blood. Sir Percival,--the second gentleman on the +left as you entered the library,--unhorsed, dying on a distant moor, +with a handful of followers, abandoned by a charming Prince and a +miserable cause, was scarcely a greater hero than this ruined but +undaunted gentleman of eighty, entering the breakfast-room a few +hours later as jauntily as his gout would permit, and conscientiously +dispensing the hospitalities of his crumbling house. When he had +arranged a few pleasure parties for the day and himself thoughtfully +anticipated the different tastes of his guests, he turned to Lady +Mainwaring. + +“Don't forget that somebody ought to go to the station to meet the +Bradleys. Frank writes from St. Moritz that they are due here to-day.” + +Lady Mainwaring glanced quickly at her husband, and said sotto voce, “Do +you think they'll care to come NOW? They probably have heard all about +it.” + +“Not how it affects me,” returned Sir Robert, in the same tone; “and +as they might think that because Frank was with them on that California +mountain we would believe it had something to do with Richardson +involving the Bank in that wretched company, we must really INSIST upon +their coming.” + +“Bradley!” echoed the Hon. Captain FitzHarry, overhearing the name +during a late forage on the sideboard, “Bradley!--there was an awfully +pretty American at Biarritz, travelling with a cousin, I think--a Miss +Mason or Macy. Those sort of people, you know, who have a companion +as pretty as themselves; bring you down with the other barrel if one +misses--eh? Very clever, both of them, and hardly any accent.” + +“Mr. Bradley was a very dear friend of Frank's, and most kind to him,” + said Lady Mainwaring, gravely. + +“Didn't know there WAS a Mr. Bradley, really. He didn't come to the +fore, then,” said the unabashed Captain. “Deuced hard to follow up those +American husbands!” + +“And their wives wouldn't thank you, if you did,” said Lady Griselda +Armiger, with a sweet smile. + +“If it is the Mrs. Bradley I mean,” said Lady Canterbridge from the +lower end of the table, looking up from her letter, “who looks a little +like Mrs. Summertree, and has a pretty cousin with her who has very good +frocks, I'm afraid you won't be able to get her down here. She's booked +with engagements for the next six weeks. She and her cousin made all the +running at Grigsby Royal, and she has quite deposed that other American +beauty in Northforeland's good graces. She regularly affiche'd him, and +it is piteous to see him follow her about. No, my dear; I don't believe +they'll come to any one of less rank than a Marquis. If they did, I'm +sure Canterbridge would have had them at Buckenthorpe already.” + +“I wonder if there was ever anything in Frank's admiration of this Miss +Macy?” said Lady Mainwaring a few moments later, lingering beside her +husband in his study. + +“I really don't know,” said Sir Robert, abstractedly: “his letters were +filled with her praises, and Richardson thought--” + +“Pray don't mention that man's name again,” said Lady Mainwaring, with +the first indication of feeling she had shown. “I shouldn't trust him.” + +“But why do you ask?” returned her husband. + +Lady Mainwaring was silent for a moment. “She is very rich, I believe,” + she said slowly. “At least, Frank writes that some neighbors of theirs +whom he met in the Engadine told him they had sold the site of that +absurd cottage where he was ill for some extravagant sum.” + +“My dear Geraldine,” said the old man, affectionately, taking his wife's +hand in his own, that now for the first time trembled, “if you have any +hope based upon what you are thinking of now, let it be the last and +least. You forget that Paget told us that with the best care he could +scarcely ensure Frank's return to perfect health. Even if God in his +mercy spared him long enough to take my place, what girl would be +willing to tie herself to a man doomed to sickness and poverty? Hardly +the one you speak of, my dear.” + +Lady Canterbridge proved a true prophet. Mrs. Bradley and Miss Macy +did not come, regretfully alleging a previous engagement made on the +continent with the Duke of Northforeland and the Marquis of Dungeness; +but the unexpected and apocryphal husband DID arrive. “I myself have not +seen my wife and cousin since I returned from my visit to your son +in Switzerland. I am glad they were able to amuse themselves without +waiting for me at a London hotel, though I should have preferred to +have met them here.” Sir Robert and Lady Mainwaring were courteous but +slightly embarrassed. Lady Canterbridge, who had come to the station in +bored curiosity, raised her clear blue eyes to his. He did not look like +a fool, a complaisant or fashionably-cynical husband--this well-dressed, +well-mannered, but quietly and sympathetically observant man. Did he +really care for his selfish wife? was it perfect trust or some absurd +Transatlantic custom? She did not understand him. It wearied her and she +turned her eyes indifferently away. Bradley, a little irritated, he knew +not why, at the scrutiny of this tall, handsome, gentlemanly-looking +woman, who, however, in spite of her broad shoulders and narrow hips +possessed a refined muliebrity superior to mere womanliness of outline, +turned slightly towards Sir Robert. “Lady Canterbridge, Frank's cousin,” + explained Sir Robert, hesitatingly, as if conscious of some vague +awkwardness. Bradley and Lady Canterbridge both bowed,--possibly the +latter's salutation was the most masculine,--and Bradley, eventually +forgetting her presence, plunged into an earnest, sympathetic, and +intelligent account of the condition in which he found the invalid at +St. Moritz. The old man at first listened with an almost perfunctory +courtesy and a hesitating reserve; but as Bradley was lapsing into +equal reserve and they drove up to the gates of the quadrangle, he +unexpectedly warmed with a word or two of serious welcome. Looking up +with a half-unconscious smile, Bradley met Lady Canterbridge's examining +eyes. + +The next morning, finding an opportunity to be alone with him, Bradley, +with a tactful mingling of sympathy and directness informed his host +that he was cognizant of the disaster that had overtaken the Bank, and +delicately begged him to accept any service he could render him. “Pardon +me,” he said, “if I speak as plainly to you as I would to your son: my +friendship for him justifies an equal frankness to any one he loves; but +I should not intrude upon your confidence if I did not believe that my +knowledge and assistance might be of benefit to you. Although I did not +sell my lands to Richardson or approve of his methods,” he continued, “I +fear it was some suggestion of mine that eventually induced him to form +the larger and more disastrous scheme that ruined the Bank. So you see,” + he added lightly, “I claim a right to offer you my services.” Touched +by Bradley's sincerity and discreet intelligence, Sir Robert was equally +frank. During the recital of his Californian investments--a chronicle +of almost fatuous speculation and imbecile enterprise--Bradley was +profoundly moved at the naive ignorance of business and hopeless +ingenuousness of this old habitue of a cynical world and an intriguing +and insincere society, to whom no scheme had been too wild for +acceptance. As Bradley listened with a half-saddened smile to the grave +visions of this aged enthusiast, he remembered the son's unsophisticated +simplicity: what he had considered as the “boyishness” of immaturity was +the taint of the utterly unpractical Mainwaring blood. It was upon this +blood, and others like it, that Oldenhurst had for centuries waxed and +fattened. + +Bradley was true to his promise of assistance, and with the aid of two +or three of his brother-millionaires, whose knowledge of the resources +of the locality was no less powerful and convincing than the security +of their actual wealth, managed to stay the immediate action of the +catastrophe until the affairs of the Sierran Land and Timber Company +could be examined and some plan of reconstruction arranged. + +During this interval of five months, in which the credit of Sir Robert +Mainwaring was preserved with the secret of his disaster, Bradley was a +frequent and welcome visitor to Oldenhurst. Apart from his strange and +chivalrous friendship for the Mainwarings--which was as incomprehensible +to Sir Robert as Sir Robert's equally eccentric and Quixotic +speculations had been to Bradley--he began to feel a singular and weird +fascination for the place. A patient martyr in the vast London house he +had taken for his wife and cousin's amusement, he loved to escape the +loneliness of its autumn solitude or the occasional greater loneliness +of his wife's social triumphs. The handsome, thoughtful man who +sometimes appeared at the foot of his wife's table or melted away like +a well-bred ghost in the hollow emptiness of her brilliant receptions, +piqued the languid curiosity of a few. A distinguished personage, known +for his tactful observance of convenances that others forgot, had made a +point of challenging this gentlemanly apparition, and had followed it up +with courteous civilities, which led to exchange of much respect but no +increase of acquaintance. He had even spent a week at Buckenthorpe, with +Canterbridge in the coverts and Lady Canterbridge in the music-room and +library. He had returned more thoughtful, and for some time after +was more frequent in his appearances at home, and more earnest in his +renewed efforts to induce his wife to return to America with him. + +“You'll never be happy anywhere but in California, among those common +people,” she replied; “and while I was willing to share your poverty +THERE,” she added dryly, “I prefer to share your wealth among civilized +ladies and gentlemen. Besides,” she continued, “we must consider Louise. +She is as good as engaged to Lord Dunshunner, and I do not intend that +you shall make a mess of her affairs here as you did in California.” + +It was the first time he had heard of Lord Dunshunner's proposals; it +was the first allusion she had ever made to Louise and Mainwaring. + +Meantime, the autumn leaves had fallen silently over the broad terraces +of Oldenhurst with little changes to the fortunes of the great house +itself. The Christmas house-party included Lady Canterbridge, whose +husband was still detained at Homburg in company with Dunshunner; +and Bradley, whose wife and cousin lingered on the continent. He was +slightly embarrassed when Lady Canterbridge turned to him one afternoon +as they were returning from the lake and congratulated him abruptly upon +Louise's engagement. + +“Perhaps you don't care to be congratulated,” she said, as he did not +immediately respond, “and you had as little to do with it as with that +other? It is a woman's function.” + +“What other?” echoed Bradley. + +Lady Canterbridge slightly turned her handsome head towards him as she +walked unbendingly at his side. “Tell me how you manage to keep +your absolute simplicity so fresh. Do you suppose it wasn't known at +Oldenhurst that Frank had quite compromised himself with Miss Macy over +there?” + +“It certainly was not known 'over there,'” said Bradley, curtly. + +“Don't be angry with me.” + +Such an appeal from the tall, indifferent woman at his side, so +confidently superior to criticism, and uttered in a low tone, made him +smile, albeit uneasily. + +“I only meant to congratulate you,” she continued carelessly. +“Dunshunner is not a bad sort of fellow, and will come into a good +property some day. And then, society is so made up of caprice, just +now, that it is well for your wife's cousin to make the most of her +opportunities while they last. She is very popular now; but next +season--” Seeing that Bradley remained silent, she did not finish +the sentence, but said with her usual abruptness, “Do you know a Miss +Araminta Eulalie Sharpe?” + +Bradley started. Could any one recognize honest Minty in the hopeless +vulgarity which this fine lady had managed to carelessly import into her +name? His eye kindled. + +“She is an old friend of mine, Lady Canterbridge.” + +“How fortunate! Then I can please you by giving you good news of her. +She is the coming sensation. They say she is very rich, but quite one of +the people, you know: in fact, she makes no scruples of telling you her +father was a blacksmith, I think, and takes the dear old man with her +everywhere. FitzHarry raves about her, and says her naivete is something +too delicious. She is regularly in with some of the best people already. +Lady Dungeness has taken her up, and Northforeland is only waiting for +your cousin's engagement to be able to go over decently. Shall I ask +her to Buckenthorpe?--come, now, as an apology for my rudeness to your +cousin?” She was very womanly now in spite of her high collar, her +straight back, and her tightly-fitting jacket, as she stood there +smiling. Suddenly, her smile faded; she drew her breath in quickly. + +She had caught a glimpse of his usually thoughtful face and eyes, now +illuminated with some pleasant memory. + +“Thank you,” he said smilingly, yet with a certain hesitation, as +he thought of The Lookout and Araminta Eulalie Sharpe, and tried to +reconcile them with the lady before him. “I should like it very much.” + +“Then you have known Miss Sharpe a long time?” continued Lady +Canterbridge as they walked on. + +“While we were at The Lookout she was our nearest neighbor.” + +“And I suppose your wife will consider it quite proper for you to +see her again at my house?” said Lady Canterbridge, with a return of +conventional levity. + +“Oh! quite,” said Bradley. + +They had reached the low Norman-arched side-entrance to the quadrangle. +As Bradley swung open the bolt-studded oaken door to let her pass, she +said carelessly,-- + +“Then you are not coming in now?” + +“No; I shall walk a little longer.” + +“And I am quite forgiven?” + +“I am thanking you very much,” he said, smiling directly into her blue +eyes. She lowered them, and vanished into the darkness of the passage. + +The news of Minty's success was further corroborated by Sir Robert, +who later that evening called Bradley into the study. “Frank has been +writing from Nice that he has renewed his acquaintance with some old +Californian friends of yours--a Mr. and Miss Sharpe. Lady Canterbridge +says that they are well known in London to some of our friends, but I +would like to ask you something about them. Lady Mainwaring was on the +point of inviting them here when I received a letter from Mr. Sharpe +asking for a BUSINESS interview. Pray who is this Sharpe?” + +“You say he writes for a BUSINESS interview?” asked Bradley. + +“Yes.” + +Bradley hesitated for a moment and then said quietly, “Perhaps, then, I +am justified in a breach of confidence to him, in order to answer your +question. He is the man who has assumed all the liabilities of the +Sierran Land and Timber Company to enable the Bank to resume payment. +But he did it on the condition that you were never to know it. For the +rest, he was a blacksmith who made a fortune, as Lady Canterbridge will +tell you.” + +“How very odd--how kind, I mean. I should like to have been civil to him +on Frank's account alone.” + +“I should see him on business and be civil to him afterwards.” Sir +Robert received the American's levity with his usual seriousness. + +“No, they must come here for Christmas. His daughter is--?” + +“Araminta Eulalie Sharpe,” said Bradley, in defiant memory of Lady +Canterbridge. + +Sir Robert winced audibly. “I shall rely on you, my dear boy, to help me +make it pleasant for them,” he said. + +Christmas came, but not Minty. It drew a large contingent from +Oldenhurst to the quaint old church, who came to view the green-wreathed +monuments, and walls spotted with crimson berries, as if with the blood +of former Oldenhurst warriors, and to impress the wondering villagers +with the ineffable goodness and bounty of the Creator towards the Lords +of Oldenhurst and their friends. Sir Robert, a little gouty, kept the +house, and Bradley, somewhat uneasy at the Sharpes' absence, but more +distrait with other thoughts, wandered listlessly in the long library. +At the lower angle it was embayed into the octagon space of a former +tower, which was furnished as a quaint recess for writing or study, +pierced through its enormous walls with a lance-shaped window, hidden by +heavy curtains. He was gazing abstractedly at the melancholy eyes of Sir +Percival, looking down from the dark panel opposite, when he heard the +crisp rustle of a skirt. Lady Canterbridge tightly and stiffly buttoned +in black from her long narrow boots to her slim, white-collared neck, +stood beside him with a prayer-book in her ungloved hand. Bradley +colored quickly; the penetrating incense of the Christmas boughs +and branches that decked the walls and ceilings, mingled with some +indefinable intoxicating aura from the woman at his side, confused his +senses. He seemed to be losing himself in some forgotten past coeval +with the long, quaintly-lighted room, the rich hangings, and the painted +ancestor of this handsome woman. He recovered himself with an effort, +and said, + +“You are going to church?” + +“I may meet them coming home; it's all the same. You like HIM?” she said +abruptly, pointing to the portrait. “I thought you did not care for that +sort of man over there.” + +“A man like that must have felt the impotence of his sacrifice before he +died, and that condoned everything,” said Bradley, thoughtfully. + +“Then you don't think him a fool? Bob says it was a fair bargain for +a title and an office, and that by dying he escaped trial and the +confiscation of what he had.” + +Bradley did not reply. + +“I am disturbing your illusions again. Yet I rather like them. I think +you are quite capable of a sacrifice--perhaps you know what it is +already.” + +He felt that she was looking at him; he felt equally that he could not +respond with a commonplace. He was silent. + +“I have offended you again, Mr. Bradley,” she said. “Please be +Christian, and pardon me. You know this is a season of peace and +goodwill.” She raised her blue eyes at the same moment to the Christmas +decorations on the ceiling. They were standing before the parted drapery +of the lance window. Midway between the arched curtains hung a spray +of mistletoe--the conceit of a mischievous housemaid. Their eyes met it +simultaneously. + +Bradley had Lady Canterbridge's slim, white hand in his own. The next +moment voices were heard in the passage, and the door nearly opposite to +them opened deliberately. The idea of their apparent seclusion and half +compromising attitude flashed through the minds of both at the same +time. Lady Canterbridge stepped quickly backward, drawing Bradley with +her, into the embrasure of the window; the folds of the curtain swung +together and concealed them from view. + +The door had been opened by the footman, ushering in a broad-shouldered +man, who was carrying a travelling-bag and an umbrella in his hand. +Dropping into an arm-chair before the curtain, he waved away the +footman, who, even now, mechanically repeated a previously vain attempt +to relieve the stranger of his luggage. + +“You leave that 'ere grip sack where it is, young man, and tell Sir +Robert Mainwaring that Mr. Demander Sharpe, of Californy, wishes to +see him--on business--on BUSINESS, do ye' hear? You hang onter that +sentence--on BUSINESS! it's about ez much ez you kin carry, I reckon, +and leave that grip sack alone.” + +From behind the curtain Bradley made a sudden movement to go forward; +but Lady Canterbridge--now quite pale but collected--restrained him with +a warning movement of her hand. Sir Robert's stick and halting step were +next heard along the passage, and he entered the room. His simple and +courteous greeting of the stranger was instantly followed by a renewed +attack upon the “grip sack,” and a renewed defence of it by the +stranger. + +“No, Sir Robert,” said the voice argumentatively, “this yer's a BUSINESS +interview, and until it's over--if YOU please--we'll remain ez we air. +I'm Demander Sharpe, of Californy, and I and my darter, Minty, oncet had +the pleasure of knowing your boy over thar, and of meeting him agin the +other day at Nice.” + +“I think,” said Sir Robert's voice gently, “that these are not the only +claims you have upon me. I have only a day or two ago heard from +Mr. Bradley that I owe to your generous hands and your disinterested +liberality the saving of my California fortune.” + +There was the momentary sound of a pushed-back chair, a stamping of +feet, and then Mr. Sharpe's voice rose high with the blacksmith's old +querulous aggrieved utterance. + +“So it's that finikin', conceited Bradley agin--that's giv' me away! +Ef that man's all-fired belief in his being the Angel Gabriel and Dan'l +Webster rolled inter one don't beat anythin'! I suppose that high-flyin' +jay-bird kalkilated to put you and me and my gal and yer boy inter +harness for his four hoss chariot and he sittin' kam on the box drivin' +us! Why don't he tend to his own business, and look arter his own +concerns--instead o' leaving Jinny Bradley and Loo Macy dependent +on Kings and Queens and titled folks gen'rally, and he, Jim Bradley, +philanderin' with another man's wife--while that thar man is hard at +work tryin' to make a honest livin' fer his wife, buckin' agin faro an' +the tiger gen'rally at Monaco! Eh? And that man a-inter-meddlin' with +me! Ef,” continued the voice, dropped to a tone of hopeless moral +conviction, “ef there's a man I mor'aly despise--it's that finikin' Jim +Bradley.” + +“You quite misunderstand me, my dear sir,” said Sir Robert's hurried +voice; “he told me you had pledged him to secrecy, and he only revealed +it to explain why you wished to see me.” + +There was a grunt of half-placated wrath from Sharpe, and then the voice +resumed, but more deliberately, “Well, to come back to business: you've +got a boy, Francis, and I've got a darter, Araminty. They've sorter +taken a shine to each other and they want to get married. Mind yer--wait +a moment!--it wasn't allus so. No, sir; when my gal Araminty first seed +your boy in Californy she was poor, and she didn't kalkilate to get +inter anybody's family unbeknownst or on sufferance. Then she got rich +and you got poor; and then--hold on a minit!--she allows, does my girl, +that there ain't any nearer chance o' their making a match than they +were afore, for she isn't goin' to hev it said that she married your son +fur the chance of some day becomin' Lady Mainwaring.” + +“One moment, Mr. Sharpe,” said the voice of the Baronet, gravely: “I am +both flattered and pained by what I believe to be the kindly object of +your visit. Indeed, I may say I have gathered a suspicion of what might +be the sequel of this most unhappy acquaintance of my son and your +daughter; but I cannot believe that he has kept you in ignorance of his +unfortunate prospects and his still more unfortunate state of health.” + +“When I told ye to hold on a minit,” continued the blacksmith's voice, +with a touch of querulousness in its accent, “that was jist wot I was +comin' to. I knowed part of it from my own pocket, she knowed the rest +of it from his lip and the doctors she interviewed. And then she says to +me--sez my girl Minty--Pop,' she sez, 'he's got nothing to live for now +but his title, and that he never may live to get, so that I think ye kin +jist go, Pop, and fairly and squarely, as a honest man, ask his father +to let me hev him.' Them's my darter's own words, Sir Robert, and when +I tell yer that she's got a million o' dollars to back them, ye'll know +she means business, every time.” + +“Did Francis know that you were coming here?” + +“Bless ye, no! he don't know that she would have him. Ef it kem to that, +he ain't even asked her! She wouldn't let him until she was sure of +YOU.” + +“Then you mean to say there is no engagement?” + +“In course not. I reckoned to do the square thing first with ye.” + +The halting step of the Baronet crossing the room was heard distinctly. +He had stopped beside Sharpe. “My dear Mr. Sharpe,” he said, in a +troubled voice, “I cannot permit this sacrifice. It is too--too great!” + +“Then,” said Sharpe' s voice querulously, “I'm afraid we must do without +your permission. I didn't reckon to find a sort o' British Jim Bradley +in you. If YOU can't permit my darter to sacrifice herself by marryin' +your son, I can't permit her to sacrifice her love and him by NOT +marryin' him. So I reckon this yer interview is over.” + +“I am afraid we are both old fools, Mr. Sharpe; but--we will talk this +over with Lady Mainwaring. Come--” There was evidently a slight struggle +near the chair over some inanimate object. But the next moment the +Baronet's voice rose, persuasively, “Really, I must insist upon +relieving you of your bag and umbrella.” + +“Well, if you'll let me telegraph 'yes' to Minty, I don't care if yer +do.” + +When the room was quiet again, Lady Canterbridge and James Bradley +silently slipped from the curtain, and, without a word, separated at the +door. + + +There was a merry Christmas at Oldenhurst and at Nice. But whether +Minty's loving sacrifice was accepted or not, or whether she ever +reigned as Lady Mainwaring, or lived an untitled widow, I cannot +say. But as Oldenhurst still exists in all its pride and power, it is +presumed that the peril that threatened its fortunes was averted, +and that if another heroine was not found worthy of a frame in its +picture-gallery, at least it had been sustained as of old by devotion +and renunciation. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Phyllis of the Sierras, by Bret Harte + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PHYLLIS OF THE SIERRAS *** + +***** This file should be named 2711-0.txt or 2711-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/1/2711/ + +Produced by Donald Lainson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/2711-0.zip b/2711-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3c7dd8e --- /dev/null +++ b/2711-0.zip diff --git a/2711-h.zip b/2711-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e5b4481 --- /dev/null +++ b/2711-h.zip diff --git a/2711-h/2711-h.htm b/2711-h/2711-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d92b426 --- /dev/null +++ b/2711-h/2711-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4095 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + A Phyllis of the Sierras, by Bret Harte + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Phyllis of the Sierras, by Bret Harte + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Phyllis of the Sierras + +Author: Bret Harte + +Release Date: May 25, 2006 [EBook #2711] +Last Updated: March 5, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PHYLLIS OF THE SIERRAS *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson; David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h1> + A PHYLLIS OF THE SIERRAS + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Bret Harte + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + Contents + </h2> + <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + <tr> + <td> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> CHAPER II. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> CHAPER III. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> CHAPER IV. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> CHAPER V. </a> + </p> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + CHAPTER I. + </h2> + <p> + Where the great highway of the Sierras nears the summit, and the pines + begin to show sterile reaches of rock and waste in their drawn-up files, + there are signs of occasional departures from the main road, as if the + weary traveller had at times succumbed to the long ascent, and turned + aside for rest and breath again. The tired eyes of many a dusty passenger + on the old overland coach have gazed wistfully on those sylvan openings, + and imagined recesses of primeval shade and virgin wilderness in their dim + perspectives. Had he descended, however, and followed one of these + diverging paths, he would have come upon some rude wagon track, or + “logslide,” leading from a clearing on the slope, or the ominous saw-mill, + half hidden in the forest it was slowly decimating. The woodland hush + might have been broken by the sound of water passing over some unseen dam + in the hollow, or the hiss of escaping steam and throb of an invisible + engine in the covert. + </p> + <p> + Such, at least, was the experience of a young fellow of five-and-twenty, + who, knapsack on back and stick in hand, had turned aside from the highway + and entered the woods one pleasant afternoon in July. But he was evidently + a deliberate pedestrian, and not a recent deposit of the proceeding + stage-coach; and although his stout walking-shoes were covered with dust, + he had neither the habitual slouch and slovenliness of the tramp, nor the + hurried fatigue and growing negligence of an involuntary wayfarer. His + clothes, which were strong and serviceable, were better fitted for their + present usage than the ordinary garments of the Californian travellers, + which were too apt to be either above or below their requirements. But + perhaps the stranger's greatest claim to originality was the absence of + any weapon in his equipment. He carried neither rifle nor gun in his hand, + and his narrow leathern belt was empty of either knife or revolver. + </p> + <p> + A half-mile from the main road, which seemed to him to have dropped out of + sight the moment he had left it, he came upon a half-cleared area, where + the hastily-cut stumps of pines, of irregular height, bore an odd + resemblance to the broken columns of some vast and ruined temple. A few + fallen shafts, denuded of their bark and tessellated branches, sawn into + symmetrical cylinders, lay beside the stumps, and lent themselves to the + illusion. But the freshly-cut chips, so damp that they still clung in + layers to each other as they had fallen from the axe, and the stumps + themselves, still wet and viscous from their drained life-blood, were + redolent of an odor of youth and freshness. + </p> + <p> + The young man seated himself on one of the logs and deeply inhaled the + sharp balsamic fragrance—albeit with a slight cough and a later + hurried respiration. This, and a certain drawn look about his upper lip, + seemed to indicate, in spite of his strength and color, some pulmonary + weakness. He, however, rose after a moment's rest with undiminished energy + and cheerfulness, readjusted his knapsack, and began to lightly pick his + way across the fallen timber. A few paces on, the muffled whir of + machinery became more audible, with the lazy, monotonous command of “Gee + thar,” from some unseen ox-driver. Presently, the slow, + deliberately-swaying heads of a team of oxen emerged from the bushes, + followed by the clanking chain of the “skids” of sawn planks, which they + were ponderously dragging with that ostentatious submissiveness peculiar + to their species. They had nearly passed him when there was a sudden hitch + in the procession. From where he stood he could see that a projecting + plank had struck a pile of chips and become partly imbedded in it. To run + to the obstruction and, with a few dexterous strokes and the leverage of + his stout stick, dislodge the plank was the work not only of the moment + but of an evidently energetic hand. The teamster looked back and merely + nodded his appreciation, and with a “Gee up! Out of that, now!” the skids + moved on. + </p> + <p> + “Much obliged, there!” said a hearty voice, as if supplementing the + teamster's imperfect acknowledgment. + </p> + <p> + The stranger looked up. The voice came from the open, sashless, + shutterless window of a rude building—a mere shell of boards and + beams half hidden in the still leafy covert before him. He had completely + overlooked it in his approach, even as he had ignored the nearer throbbing + of the machinery, which was so violent as to impart a decided tremor to + the slight edifice, and to shake the speaker so strongly that he was + obliged while speaking to steady himself by the sashless frame of the + window at which he stood. He had a face of good-natured and alert + intelligence, a master's independence and authority of manner, in spite of + his blue jean overalls and flannel shirt. + </p> + <p> + “Don't mention it,” said the stranger, smiling with equal but more + deliberate good-humor. Then, seeing that his interlocutor still lingered a + hospitable moment in spite of his quick eyes and the jarring impatience of + the machinery, he added hesitatingly, “I fancy I've wandered off the track + a bit. Do you know a Mr. Bradley—somewhere here?” + </p> + <p> + The stranger's hesitation seemed to be more from some habitual + conscientiousness of statement than awkwardness. The man in the window + replied, “I'm Bradley.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah! Thank you: I've a letter for you—somewhere. Here it is.” He + produced a note from his breast-pocket. Bradley stooped to a sitting + posture in the window. “Pitch it up.” It was thrown and caught cleverly. + Bradley opened it, read it hastily, smiled and nodded, glanced behind him + as if to implore further delay from the impatient machinery, leaned + perilously from the window, and said,— + </p> + <p> + “Look here! Do you see that silver-fir straight ahead?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “A little to the left there's a trail. Follow it and skirt along the edge + of the canyon until you see my house. Ask for my wife—that's Mrs. + Bradley—and give her your letter. Stop!” He drew a carpenter's + pencil from his pocket, scrawled two or three words across the open sheet + and tossed it back to the stranger. “See you at tea! Excuse me—Mr. + Mainwaring—we're short-handed—and—the engine—” But + here he disappeared suddenly. + </p> + <p> + Without glancing at the note again, the stranger quietly replaced it in + his pocket, and struck out across the fallen trunks towards the + silver-fir. He quickly found the trail indicated by Bradley, although it + was faint and apparently worn by a single pair of feet as a shorter and + private cut from some more travelled path. It was well for the stranger + that he had a keen eye or he would have lost it; it was equally fortunate + that he had a mountaineering instinct, for a sudden profound deepening of + the blue mist seen dimly through the leaves before him caused him to + slacken his steps. The trail bent abruptly to the right; a gulf fully two + thousand feet deep was at his feet! It was the Great Canyon. + </p> + <p> + At the first glance it seemed so narrow that a rifle-shot could have + crossed its tranquil depths; but a second look at the comparative size of + the trees on the opposite mountain convinced him of his error. A nearer + survey of the abyss also showed him that instead of its walls being + perpendicular they were made of successive ledges or terraces to the + valley below. Yet the air was so still, and the outlines so clearly cut, + that they might have been only the reflections of the mountains around him + cast upon the placid mirror of a lake. The spectacle arrested him, as it + arrested all men, by some occult power beyond the mere attraction of + beauty or magnitude; even the teamster never passed it without the tribute + of a stone or broken twig tossed into its immeasurable profundity. + </p> + <p> + Reluctantly leaving the spot, the stranger turned with the trail that now + began to skirt its edge. This was no easy matter, as the undergrowth was + very thick, and the foliage dense to the perilous brink of the precipice. + He walked on, however, wondering why Bradley had chosen so circuitous and + dangerous a route to his house, which naturally would be some distance + back from the canyon. At the end of ten minutes' struggling through the + “brush,” the trail became vague, and, to all appearances, ended. Had he + arrived? The thicket was as dense as before; through the interstices of + leaf and spray he could see the blue void of the canyon at his side, and + he even fancied that the foliage ahead of him was more symmetrical and + less irregular, and was touched here and there with faint bits of color. + To complete his utter mystification, a woman's voice, very fresh, very + youthful, and by no means unmusical, rose apparently from the + circumambient air. He looked hurriedly to the right and left, and even + hopelessly into the trees above him. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said the voice, as if renewing a suspended conversation, “it was + too funny for anything. There were the two Missouri girls from Skinner's, + with their auburn hair ringleted, my dear, like the old 'Books of Beauty'—in + white frocks and sashes of an unripe greenish yellow, that puckered up + your mouth like persimmons. One of them was speechless from good behavior, + and the other—well! the other was so energetic she called out the + figures before the fiddler did, and shrieked to my vis-a-vis to dance up + to the entire stranger—meaning ME, if you please.” + </p> + <p> + The voice appeared to come from the foliage that overhung the canyon, and + the stranger even fancied he could detect through the shimmering leafy + veil something that moved monotonously to and fro. Mystified and + impatient, he made a hurried stride forward, his foot struck a wooden + step, and the next moment the mystery was made clear. He had almost + stumbled upon the end of a long veranda that projected over the abyss + before a low, modern dwelling, till then invisible, nestling on its very + brink. The symmetrically-trimmed foliage he had noticed were the luxuriant + Madeira vines that hid the rude pillars of the veranda; the moving object + was a rocking-chair, with its back towards the intruder, that disclosed + only the brown hair above, and the white skirts and small slippered feet + below, of a seated female figure. In the mean time, a second voice from + the interior of the house had replied to the figure in the chair, who was + evidently the first speaker:— + </p> + <p> + “It must have been very funny; but as long as Jim is always bringing + somebody over from the mill, I don't see how I can go to those places. You + were lucky, my dear, to escape from the new Division Superintendent last + night; he was insufferable to Jim with his talk of his friend the San + Francisco millionaire, and to me with his cheap society airs. I do hate a + provincial fine gentleman.” + </p> + <p> + The situation was becoming embarrassing to the intruder. At the apparition + of the woman, the unaffected and simple directness he had previously shown + in his equally abrupt contact with Bradley had fled utterly; confused by + the awkwardness of his arrival, and shocked at the idea of overhearing a + private conversation, he stepped hurriedly on the veranda. + </p> + <p> + “Well? go on!” said the second voice impatiently. “Well, who else was + there? WHAT did you say? I don't hear you. What's the matter?” + </p> + <p> + The seated figure had risen from her chair, and turned a young and pretty + face somewhat superciliously towards the stranger, as she said in a low + tone to her unseen auditor, “Hush! there is somebody here.” + </p> + <p> + The young man came forward with an awkwardness that was more boyish than + rustic. His embarrassment was not lessened by the simultaneous entrance + from the open door of a second woman, apparently as young as and prettier + than the first. + </p> + <p> + “I trust you'll excuse me for—for—being so wretchedly stupid,” + he stammered, “but I really thought, you know, that—that—I was + following the trail to—to—the front of the house, when I + stumbled in—in here.” + </p> + <p> + Long before he had finished, both women, by some simple feminine + intuition, were relieved and even prepossessed by his voice and manner. + They smiled graciously. The later-comer pointed to the empty chair. But + with his habit of pertinacious conscientiousness the stranger continued, + “It was regularly stupid, wasn't it?—and I ought to have known + better. I should have turned back and gone away when I found out what an + ass I was likely to be, but I was—afraid—you know, of alarming + you by the noise.” + </p> + <p> + “Won't you sit down?” said the second lady, pleasantly. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, thanks! I've a letter here—I”—he transferred his stick + and hat to his left hand as he felt in his breast-pocket with his right. + But the action was so awkward that the stick dropped on the veranda. Both + women made a movement to restore it to its embarrassed owner, who, + however, quickly anticipated them. “Pray don't mind it,” he continued, + with accelerated breath and heightened color. “Ah, here's the letter!” He + produced the note Bradley had returned to him. “It's mine, in fact—that + is, I brought it to Mr. Bradley. He said I was to give it to—to—to—Mrs. + Bradley.” He paused, glancing embarrassedly from the one to the other. + </p> + <p> + “I'm Mrs. Bradley,” said the prettiest one, with a laugh. He handed her + the letter. It ran as follows:— + </p> + <p> + “DEAR BRADLEY—Put Mr. Mainwaring through as far as he wants to go, + or hang him up at The Lookout, just as he likes. The Bank's behind him, + and his hat's chalked all over the Road; but he don't care much about + being on velvet. That ain't his style—and you'll like him. He's + somebody's son in England. B.” + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Bradley glanced simply at the first sentence. “Pray sit down, Mr. + Mainwaring,” she said gently; “or, rather, let me first introduce my + cousin—Miss Macy.” + </p> + <p> + “Thanks,” said Mainwaring, with a bow to Miss Macy, “but I—I—I—think,” + he added conscientiously, “you did not notice that your husband had + written something across the paper.” + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Bradley smiled, and glanced at her husband's indorsement—“All + right. Wade in.” “It's nothing but Jim's slang,” she said, with a laugh + and a slightly heightened color. “He ought not to have sent you by that + short cut; it's a bother, and even dangerous for a stranger. If you had + come directly to US by the road, without making your first call at the + mill,” she added, with a touch of coquetry, “you would have had a + pleasanter walk, and seen US sooner. I suppose, however, you got off the + stage at the mill?” + </p> + <p> + “I was not on the coach,” said Mainwaring, unfastening the strap of his + knapsack. “I walked over from Lone Pine Flat.” + </p> + <p> + “Walked!” echoed both women in simultaneous astonishment. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” returned Mainwaring simply, laying aside his burden and taking the + proffered seat. “It's a very fine bit of country.” + </p> + <p> + “Why, it's fifteen miles,” said Mrs. Bradley, glancing horror-stricken at + her cousin. “How dreadful! And to think Jim could have sent you a horse to + Lone Pine. Why, you must be dead!” + </p> + <p> + “Thanks, I'm all right! I rather enjoyed it, you know.” + </p> + <p> + “But,” said Miss Macy, glancing wonderingly at his knapsack, “you must + want something, a change—or some refreshment—after fifteen + miles.” + </p> + <p> + “Pray don't disturb yourself,” said Mainwaring, rising hastily, but not + quickly enough to prevent the young girl from slipping past him into the + house, whence she rapidly returned with a decanter and glasses. + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps Mr. Mainwaring would prefer to go into Jim's room and wash his + hands and put on a pair of slippers?” said Mrs. Bradley, with gentle + concern. + </p> + <p> + “Thanks, no. I really am not tired. I sent some luggage yesterday by the + coach to the Summit Hotel,” he said, observing the women's eyes still + fixed upon his knapsack. “I dare say I can get them if I want them. I've + got a change here,” he continued, lifting the knapsack as if with a sudden + sense of its incongruity with its surroundings, and depositing it on the + end of the veranda. + </p> + <p> + “Do let it remain where it is,” said Mrs. Bradley, greatly amused, “and + pray sit still and take some refreshment. You'll make yourself ill after + your exertions,” she added, with a charming assumption of matronly + solicitude. + </p> + <p> + “But I'm not at all deserving of your sympathy,” said Mainwaring, with a + laugh. “I'm awfully fond of walking, and my usual constitutional isn't + much under this.” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps you were stronger than you are now,” said Mrs. Bradley, gazing at + him with a frank curiosity that, however, brought a faint deepening of + color to his cheek. + </p> + <p> + “I dare say you're right,” he said suddenly, with an apologetic smile. “I + quite forgot that I'm a sort of an invalid, you know, travelling for my + health. I'm not very strong here,” he added, lightly tapping his chest, + that now, relieved of the bands of his knapsack, appeared somewhat thin + and hollow in spite of his broad shoulders. His voice, too, had become + less clear and distinct. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Bradley, who was still watching him, here rose potentially. “You + ought to take more care of yourself,” she said. “You should begin by + eating this biscuit, drinking that glass of whiskey, and making yourself + more comfortable in Jim's room until we can get the spare room fixed a + little.” + </p> + <p> + “But I am not to be sent to bed—am I?” asked Mainwaring, in + half-real, half-amused consternation. + </p> + <p> + “I'm not so sure of that,” said Mrs. Bradley, with playful precision. “But + for the present we'll let you off with a good wash and a nap afterwards in + that rocking-chair, while my cousin and I make some little domestic + preparations. You see,” she added with a certain proud humility, “we've + got only one servant—a Chinaman, and there are many things we can't + leave to him.” + </p> + <p> + The color again rose in Mainwaring's cheek, but he had tact enough to + reflect that any protest or hesitation on his part at that moment would + only increase the difficulties of his gentle entertainers. He allowed + himself to be ushered into the house by Mrs. Bradley, and shown to her + husband's room, without perceiving that Miss Macy had availed herself of + his absence to run to the end of the veranda, mischievously try to lift + the discarded knapsack to her own pretty shoulder, but, failing, + heroically stagger with it into the passage and softly deposit it at his + door. This done, she pantingly rejoined her cousin in the kitchen. + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said Mrs. Bradley, emphatically. “DID you ever? Walking fifteen + miles for pleasure—and with such lungs!” + </p> + <p> + “And that knapsack!” added Louise Macy, pointing to the mark in her little + palm where the strap had imbedded itself in the soft flesh. + </p> + <p> + “He's nice, though; isn't he?” said Mrs. Bradley, tentatively. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said Miss Macy, “he isn't, certainly, one of those provincial fine + gentlemen you object to. But DID you see his shoes? I suppose they make + the miles go quickly, or seem to measure less by comparison.” + </p> + <p> + “They're probably more serviceable than those high-heeled things that + Captain Greyson hops about in.” + </p> + <p> + “But the Captain always rides—and rides very well—you know,” + said Louise, reflectively. There was a moment's pause. + </p> + <p> + “I suppose Jim will tell us all about him,” said Mrs. Bradley, dismissing + the subject, as she turned her sleeves back over her white arms, + preparatory to grappling certain culinary difficulties. + </p> + <p> + “Jim,” observed Miss Macy, shortly, “in my opinion, knows nothing more + than his note says. That's like Jim.” + </p> + <p> + “There's nothing more to know, really,” said Mrs. Bradley, with a superior + air. “He's undoubtedly the son of some Englishman of fortune, sent out + here for his health.” + </p> + <p> + “Hush!” + </p> + <p> + Miss Macy had heard a step in the passage. It halted at last, half + irresolutely, before the open door of the kitchen, and the stranger + appeared with an embarrassed air. + </p> + <p> + But in his brief absence he seemed to have completely groomed himself, and + stood there, the impersonation of close-cropped, clean, and wholesome + English young manhood. The two women appreciated it with cat-like + fastidiousness. + </p> + <p> + “I beg your pardon; but really you're going to let a fellow do something + for you,” he said, “just to keep him from looking like a fool. I really + can do no end of things, you know, if you'll try me. I've done some + camping-out, and can cook as well as the next man.” + </p> + <p> + The two women made a movement of smiling remonstrance, half coquettish, + and half superior, until Mrs. Bradley, becoming conscious of her bare arms + and the stranger's wandering eyes, colored faintly, and said with more + decision:— + </p> + <p> + “Certainly not. You'd only be in the way. Besides, you need rest more than + we do. Put yourself in the rocking-chair in the veranda, and go to sleep + until Mr. Bradley comes.” + </p> + <p> + Mainwaring saw that she was serious, and withdrew, a little ashamed at his + familiarity into which his boyishness had betrayed him. But he had + scarcely seated himself in the rocking-chair before Miss Macy appeared, + carrying with both hands a large tin basin of unshelled peas. + </p> + <p> + “There,” she said pantingly, placing her burden in his lap, “if you really + want to help, there's something to do that isn't very fatiguing. You may + shell these peas.” + </p> + <p> + “SHELL them—I beg pardon, but how?” he asked, with smiling + earnestness. + </p> + <p> + “How? Why, I'll show you—look.” + </p> + <p> + She frankly stepped beside him, so close that her full-skirted dress half + encompassed him and the basin in a delicious confusion, and, leaning over + his lap, with her left hand picked up a pea-cod, which, with a single + movement of her charming little right thumb, she broke at the end, and + stripped the green shallow of its tiny treasures. + </p> + <p> + He watched her with smiling eyes; her own, looking down on him, were very + bright and luminous. “There; that's easy enough,” she said, and turned + away. + </p> + <p> + “But—one moment, Miss—Miss—?” + </p> + <p> + “Macy,” said louise. + </p> + <p> + “Where am I to put the shells?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh! throw them down there—there's room enough.” + </p> + <p> + She was pointing to the canyon below. The veranda actually projected over + its brink, and seemed to hang in mid air above it. Mainwaring almost + mechanically threw his arm out to catch the incautious girl, who had + stepped heedlessly to its extreme edge. + </p> + <p> + “How odd! Don't you find it rather dangerous here?” he could not help + saying. “I mean—you might have had a railing that wouldn't intercept + the view and yet be safe?” + </p> + <p> + “It's a fancy of Mr. Bradley's,” returned the young girl carelessly. “It's + all like this. The house was built on a ledge against the side of the + precipice, and the road suddenly drops down to it.” + </p> + <p> + “It's tremendously pretty, all the same, you know,” said the young man + thoughtfully, gazing, however, at the girl's rounded chin above him. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” she replied curtly. “But this isn't working. I must go back to + Jenny. You can shell the peas until Mr. Bradley comes home. He won't be + long.” + </p> + <p> + She turned away, and re-entered the house. Without knowing why, he thought + her withdrawal abrupt, and he was again feeling his ready color rise with + the suspicion of either having been betrayed by the young girl's innocent + fearlessness into some unpardonable familiarity, which she had quietly + resented, or of feeling an ease and freedom in the company of these two + women that were inconsistent with respect, and should be restrained. + </p> + <p> + He, however, began to apply himself to the task given to him with his + usual conscientiousness of duty, and presently acquired a certain manual + dexterity in the operation. It was “good fun” to throw the cast-off husks + into the mighty unfathomable void before him, and watch them linger with + suspended gravity in mid air for a moment—apparently motionless—until + they either lost themselves, a mere vanishing black spot in the thin + ether, or slid suddenly at a sharp angle into unknown shadow. How deuced + odd for him to be sitting here in this fashion! It would be something to + talk of hereafter, and yet,—he stopped—it was not at all in + the line of that characteristic adventure, uncivilized novelty, and + barbarous freedom which for the last month he had sought and experienced. + It was not at all like his meeting with the grizzly last week while + wandering in a lonely canyon; not a bit in the line of his chance + acquaintance with that notorious ruffian, Spanish Jack, or his witnessing + with his own eyes that actual lynching affair at Angels. No! Nor was it at + all characteristic, according to his previous ideas of frontier rural + seclusion—as for instance the Pike County cabin of the family where + he stayed one night, and where the handsome daughter asked him what his + Christian name was. No! These two young women were very unlike her; they + seemed really quite the equals of his family and friends in England,—perhaps + more attractive,—and yet, yes, it was this very attractiveness that + alarmed his inbred social conservatism regarding women. With a man it was + very different; that alert, active, intelligent husband, instinct with the + throbbing life of his saw-mill, creator and worker in one, challenged his + unqualified trust and admiration. + </p> + <p> + He had become conscious for the last minute or two of thinking rapidly and + becoming feverishly excited; of breathing with greater difficulty, and a + renewed tendency to cough. The tendency increased until he instinctively + put aside the pan from his lap and half rose. But even that slight + exertion brought on an accession of coughing. He put his handkerchief to + his lips, partly to keep the sound from disturbing the women in the + kitchen, partly because of a certain significant taste in his mouth which + he unpleasantly remembered. When he removed the handkerchief it was, as he + expected, spotted with blood. He turned quickly and re-entered the house + softly, regaining the bedroom without attracting attention. An increasing + faintness here obliged him to lie down on the bed until it should pass. + </p> + <p> + Everything was quiet. He hoped they would not discover his absence from + the veranda until he was better; it was deucedly awkward that he should + have had this attack just now—and after he had made so light of his + previous exertions. They would think him an effeminate fraud, these two + bright, active women and that alert, energetic man. A faint color came + into his cheek at the idea, and an uneasy sense that he had been in some + way foolishly imprudent about his health. Again, they might be alarmed at + missing him from the veranda; perhaps he had better have remained there; + perhaps he ought to tell them that he had concluded to take their advice + and lie down. He tried to rise, but the deep blue chasm before the window + seemed to be swelling up to meet him, the bed slowly sinking into its + oblivious profundity. He knew no more. + </p> + <p> + He came to with the smell and taste of some powerful volatile spirit, and + the vague vision of Mr. Bradley still standing at the window of the mill + and vibrating with the machinery; this changed presently to a pleasant + lassitude and lazy curiosity as he perceived Mr. Bradley smile and + apparently slip from the window of the mill to his bedside. “You're all + right now,” said Bradley, cheerfully. + </p> + <p> + He was feeling Mainwaring's pulse. Had he really been ill and was Bradley + a doctor? + </p> + <p> + Bradley evidently saw what was passing in his mind. “Don't be alarmed,” he + said gayly. “I'm not a doctor, but I practise a little medicine and + surgery on account of the men at the mill, and accidents, you know. You're + all right now; you've lost a little blood: but in a couple of weeks in + this air we'll have that tubercle healed, and you'll be as right as a + trivet.” + </p> + <p> + “In a couple of weeks!” echoed Mainwaring, in faint astonishment. “Why, I + leave here to-morrow.” + </p> + <p> + “You'll do nothing of the kind” said Mrs. Bradley, with smiling + peremptoriness, suddenly slipping out from behind her husband. “Everything + is all perfectly arranged. Jim has sent off messengers to your friends, so + that if you can't come to them, they can come to you. You see you can't + help yourself! If you WILL walk fifteen miles with such lungs, and then + frighten people to death, you must abide by the consequences.” + </p> + <p> + “You see the old lady has fixed you,” said Bradley, smiling; “and she's + the master here. Come, Mainwaring, you can send any other message you + like, and have who and what you want here; but HERE you must stop for a + while.” + </p> + <p> + “But did I frighten you really?” stammered Mainwaring, faintly, to Mrs. + Bradley. + </p> + <p> + “Frighten us!” said Mrs. Bradley. “Well, look there!” + </p> + <p> + She pointed to the window, which commanded a view of the veranda. Miss + Macy had dropped into the vacant chair, with her little feet stretched out + before her, her cheeks burning with heat and fire, her eyes partly closed, + her straw hat hanging by a ribbon round her neck, her brown hair clinging + to her ears and forehead in damp tendrils, and an enormous palm-leaf fan + in each hand violently playing upon this charming picture of exhaustion + and abandonment. + </p> + <p> + “She came tearing down to the mill, bare-backed on our half-broken + mustang, about half an hour ago, to call me 'to help you,'” explained + Bradley. “Heaven knows how she managed to do it!” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPER II. + </h2> + <p> + The medication of the woods was not overestimated by Bradley. There was + surely some occult healing property in that vast reservoir of balmy and + resinous odors over which The Lookout beetled and clung, and from which at + times the pure exhalations of the terraced valley seemed to rise. Under + its remedial influence and a conscientious adherence to the rules of + absolute rest and repose laid down for him, Mainwaring had no return of + the hemorrhage. The nearest professional medical authority, hastily + summoned, saw no reason for changing or for supplementing Bradley's + intelligent and simple treatment, although astounded that the patient had + been under no more radical or systematic cure than travel and exercise. + The women especially were amazed that Mainwaring had taken “nothing for + it,” in their habitual experience of an unfettered + pill-and-elixir-consuming democracy. In their knowledge of the thousand + “panaceas” that filled the shelves of the general store, this singular + abstention of their guest seemed to indicate a national peculiarity. + </p> + <p> + His bed was moved beside the low window, from which he could not only view + the veranda but converse at times with its occupants, and even listen to + the book which Miss Macy, seated without, read aloud to him. In the + evening Bradley would linger by his couch until late, beguiling the tedium + of his convalescence with characteristic stories and information which he + thought might please the invalid. For Mainwaring, who had been early + struck with Bradley's ready and cultivated intelligence, ended by shyly + avoiding the discussion of more serious topics, partly because Bradley + impressed him with a suspicion of his own inferiority, and partly because + Mainwaring questioned the taste of Bradley's apparent exhibition of his + manifest superiority. He learned accidentally that this mill-owner and + backwoodsman was a college-bred man; but the practical application of that + education to the ordinary affairs of life was new to the young + Englishman's traditions, and grated a little harshly on his feelings. He + would have been quite content if Bradley had, like himself and fellows he + knew, undervalued his training, and kept his gifts conservatively + impractical. The knowledge also that his host's education naturally came + from some provincial institution unlike Oxford and Cambridge may have + unconsciously affected his general estimate. I say unconsciously, for his + strict conscientiousness would have rejected any such formal proposition. + </p> + <p> + Another trifle annoyed him. He could not help noticing also that although + Bradley's manner and sympathy were confidential and almost brotherly, he + never made any allusion to Mainwaring's own family or connections, and, in + fact, gave no indication of what he believed was the national curiosity in + regard to strangers. Somewhat embarrassed by this indifference, Mainwaring + made the occasion of writing some letters home an opportunity for + laughingly alluding to the fact that he had made his mother and his + sisters fully aware of the great debt they owed the household of The + Lookout. + </p> + <p> + “They'll probably all send you a round robin of thanks, except, perhaps, + my next brother, Bob.” + </p> + <p> + Bradley contented himself with a gesture of general deprecation, and did + not ask WHY Mainwaring's young brother should contemplate his death with + satisfaction. Nevertheless, some time afterwards Miss Macy remarked that + it seemed hard that the happiness of one member of a family should depend + upon a calamity to another. “As for instance?” asked Mainwaring, who had + already forgotten the circumstance. “Why, if you had died and your younger + brother succeeded to the baronetcy, and become Sir Robert Mainwaring,” + responded Miss Macy, with precision. This was the first and only allusion + to his family and prospective rank. On the other hand, he had—through + naive and boyish inquiries, which seemed to amuse his entertainers—acquired, + as he believed, a full knowledge of the history and antecedents of the + Bradley household. He knew how Bradley had brought his young wife and her + cousin to California and abandoned a lucrative law practice in San + Francisco to take possession of this mountain mill and woodland, which he + had acquired through some professional service. + </p> + <p> + “Then you are a barrister really?” said Mainwaring, gravely. + </p> + <p> + Bradley laughed. “I'm afraid I've had more practice—though not as + lucrative a one—as surgeon or doctor.” + </p> + <p> + “But you're regularly on the rolls, you know; you're entered as Counsel, + and all that sort of thing?” continued Mainwaring, with great seriousness. + </p> + <p> + “Well, yes,” replied Bradley, much amused. “I'm afraid I must plead guilty + to that.” + </p> + <p> + “It's not a bad sort of thing,” said Mainwaring, naively, ignoring + Bradley's amusement. “I've got a cousin who's gone in for the law. Got out + of the army to do it—too. He's a sharp fellow.” + </p> + <p> + “Then you DO allow a man to try many trades—over there,” said Miss + Macy, demurely. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, sometimes,” said Mainwaring, graciously, but by no means certain + that the case was at all analogous. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, as if relieved of certain doubts of the conventional quality + of his host's attainments, he now gave himself up to a very hearty and + honest admiration of Bradley. “You know it's awfully kind of him to talk + to a fellow like me who just pulled through, and never got any prizes at + Oxford, and don't understand the half of these things,” he remarked + confidentially to Mrs. Bradley. “He knows more about the things we used to + go in for at Oxford than lots of our men, and he's never been there. He's + uncommonly clever.” + </p> + <p> + “Jim was always very brilliant,” returned Mrs. Bradley, indifferently, and + with more than even conventionally polite wifely deprecation; “I wish he + were more practical.” + </p> + <p> + “Practical! Oh, I say, Mrs. Bradley! Why, a fellow that can go in among a + lot of workmen and tell them just what to do—an all-round chap that + can be independent of his valet, his doctor, and his—banker! By Jove—THAT'S + practical!” + </p> + <p> + “I mean,” said Mrs. Bradley, coldly, “that there are some things that a + gentleman ought not to be practical about nor independent of. Mr. Bradley + would have done better to have used his talents in some more legitimate + and established way.” + </p> + <p> + Mainwaring looked at her in genuine surprise. To his inexperienced + observation Bradley's intelligent energy and, above all, his originality, + ought to have been priceless in the eyes of his wife—the American + female of his species. He felt that slight shock which most loyal or + logical men feel when first brought face to face with the easy disloyalty + and incomprehensible logic of the feminine affections. Here was a fellow, + by Jove, that any woman ought to be proud of, and—and—he + stopped blankly. He wondered if Miss Macy sympathized with her cousin. + </p> + <p> + Howbeit, this did not affect the charm of their idyllic life at The + Lookout. The precipice over which they hung was as charming as ever in its + poetic illusions of space and depth and color; the isolation of their + comfortable existence in the tasteful yet audacious habitation, the + pleasant routine of daily tasks and amusements, all tended to make the + enforced quiet and inaction of his convalescence a lazy recreation. He was + really improving; more than that, he was conscious of a certain + satisfaction in this passive observation of novelty that was healthier and + perhaps TRUER than his previous passion for adventure and that febrile + desire for change and excitement which he now felt was a part of his + disease. Nor were incident and variety entirely absent from this tranquil + experience. He was one day astonished at being presented by Bradley with + copies of the latest English newspapers, procured from Sacramento, and he + equally astonished his host, after profusely thanking him, by only + listlessly glancing at their columns. He estopped a proposed visit from + one of his influential countrymen; in the absence of his fair entertainers + at their domestic duties, he extracted infinite satisfaction from Foo-Yup, + the Chinese servant, who was particularly detached for his service. From + his invalid coign of vantage at the window he was observant of all that + passed upon the veranda, that al-fresco audience-room of The Lookout, and + he was good-humoredly conscious that a great many eccentric and peculiar + visitors were invariably dragged thither by Miss Macy, and goaded into + characteristic exhibition within sight and hearing of her guest, with a + too evident view, under the ostentatious excuse of extending his knowledge + of national character or mischievously shocking him. + </p> + <p> + “When you are strong enough to stand Captain Gashweiler's opinions of the + Established Church and Chinamen,” said Miss Macy, after one of these + revelations, “I'll get Jim to bring him here, for really he swears so + outrageously that even in the broadest interests of international + understanding and good-will neither Mrs. Bradley nor myself could be + present.” + </p> + <p> + On another occasion she provokingly lingered before his window for a + moment with a rifle slung jauntily over her shoulder. “If you hear a shot + or two don't excite yourself, and believe we're having a lynching case in + the woods. It will be only me. There's some creature—confess, you + expected me to say 'critter'—hanging round the barn. It may be a + bear. Good-by.” She missed the creature,—which happened to be really + a bear,—much to Mainwaring's illogical satisfaction. “I wonder why,” + he reflected, with vague uneasiness, “she doesn't leave all that sort of + thing to girls like that tow-headed girl at the blacksmith's.” + </p> + <p> + It chanced, however, that this blacksmith's tow-headed daughter, who, it + may be incidentally remarked, had the additional eccentricities of large + black eyes and large white teeth, came to the fore in quite another + fashion. Shortly after this, Mainwaring being able to leave his room and + join the family board, Mrs. Bradley found it necessary to enlarge her + domestic service, and arranged with her nearest neighbor, the blacksmith, + to allow his daughter to come to The Lookout for a few days to “do the + chores” and assist in the housekeeping, as she had on previous occasions. + The day of her advent Bradley entered Mainwaring's room, and, closing the + door mysteriously, fixed his blue eyes, kindling with mischief, on the + young Englishman. + </p> + <p> + “You are aware, my dear boy,” he began with affected gravity, “that you + are now living in a land of liberty, where mere artificial distinctions + are not known, and where Freedom from her mountain heights generally + levels all social positions. I think you have graciously admitted that + fact.” + </p> + <p> + “I know I've been taking a tremendous lot of freedom with you and yours, + old man, and it's a deuced shame,” interrupted Mainwaring, with a faint + smile. + </p> + <p> + “And that nowhere,” continued Bradley, with immovable features, “does + equality exist as perfectly as above yonder unfathomable abyss, where you + have also, doubtless, observed the American eagle proudly soars and + screams defiance.” + </p> + <p> + “Then that was the fellow that kept me awake this morning, and made me + wonder if I was strong enough to hold a gun again.” + </p> + <p> + “That wouldn't have settled the matter,” continued Bradley, imperturbably. + “The case is simply this: Miss Minty Sharpe, that blacksmith's daughter, + has once or twice consented, for a slight emolument, to assist in our + domestic service for a day or two, and she comes back again to-day. Now, + under the aegis of that noble bird whom your national instincts tempt you + to destroy, she has on all previous occasions taken her meals with us, at + the same table, on terms of perfect equality. She will naturally expect to + do the same now. Mrs. Bradley thought it proper, therefore, to warn you, + that, in case your health was not quite equal to this democratic + simplicity, you could still dine in your room.” + </p> + <p> + “It would be great fun—if Miss Sharpe won't object to my presence.” + </p> + <p> + “But it must not be 'great fun,'” returned Bradley, more seriously; “for + Miss Minty's perception of humor is probably as keen as yours, and she + would be quick to notice it. And, so far from having any objection to you, + I am inclined to think that we owe her consent to come to her desire of + making your acquaintance.” + </p> + <p> + “She will find my conduct most exemplary,” said Mainwaring, earnestly. + </p> + <p> + “Let us hope so,” concluded Bradley, with unabated gravity. “And, now that + you have consented, let me add from my own experience that Miss Minty's + lemon-pies alone are worthy of any concession.” + </p> + <p> + The dinner-hour came. Mainwaring, a little pale and interesting, leaning + on the arm of Bradley, crossed the hall, and for the first time entered + the dining-room of the house where he had lodged for three weeks. It was a + bright, cheerful apartment, giving upon the laurels of the rocky hillside, + and permeated, like the rest of the house, with the wholesome spice of the + valley—an odor that, in its pure desiccating property, seemed to + obliterate all flavor of alien human habitation, and even to dominate and + etherealize the appetizing smell of the viands before them. The bare, + shining, planed, boarded walls appeared to resent any decoration that + might have savored of dust, decay, or moisture. The four large windows and + long, open door, set in scanty strips of the plainest spotless muslin, + framed in themselves pictures of woods and rock and sky of limitless + depth, color, and distance, that made all other adornment impertinent. + Nature, invading the room at every opening, had banished Art from those + neutral walls. + </p> + <p> + “It's like a picnic, with comfort,” said Mainwaring, glancing round him + with boyish appreciation. Miss Minty was not yet there; the Chinaman was + alone in attendance. Mainwaring could not help whispering, half + mischievously, to Louise, “You draw the line at Chinamen, I suppose?” + </p> + <p> + “WE don't, but HE does,” answered the young girl. “He considers us his + social inferiors. But—hush!” + </p> + <p> + Minty Sharpe had just entered the room, and was advancing with smiling + confidence towards the table. Mainwaring was a little startled; he had + seen Minty in a holland sun-bonnet and turned up skirt crossing the + veranda, only a moment before; in the brief instant between the dishing-up + of dinner and its actual announcement she had managed to change her dress, + put on a clean collar, cuffs, and a large jet brooch, and apply some + odorous unguent to her rebellious hair. Her face, guiltless of powder or + cold cream, was still shining with the healthy perspiration of her last + labors as she promptly took the vacant chair beside Mainwaring. + </p> + <p> + “Don't mind me, folks,” she said cheerfully, resting her plump elbow on + the table, and addressing the company generally, but gazing with frank + curiosity into the face of the young man at her side. “It was a keen jump, + I tell yer, to get out of my old duds inter these, and look decent inside + o' five minutes. But I reckon I ain't kept yer waitin' long—least of + all this yer sick stranger. But you're looking pearter than you did. + You're wonderin' like ez not where I ever saw ye before?” she continued, + laughing. “Well, I'll tell you. Last week! I'd kem over yer on a chance of + seein' Jenny Bradley, and while I was meanderin' down the veranda I saw + you lyin' back in your chair by the window drowned in sleep, like a baby. + Lordy! I mout hev won a pair o' gloves, but I reckoned you were Loo's + game, and not mine.” + </p> + <p> + The slightly constrained laugh which went round the table after Miss + Minty's speech was due quite as much to the faint flush that had accented + Mainwaring's own smile as to the embarrassing remark itself. Mrs. Bradley + and Miss Macy exchanged rapid glances. Bradley, who alone retained his + composure, with a slight flicker of amusement in the corner of his eye and + nostril, said quickly: “You see, Mainwaring, how nature stands ready to + help your convalescence at every turn. If Miss Minty had only followed up + her healing opportunity, your cure would have been complete.” + </p> + <p> + “Ye mout hev left some o' that pretty talk for HIM to say,” said Minty, + taking up her knife and fork with a slight shrug, “and you needn't call me + MISS Minty either, jest because there's kempeny present.” + </p> + <p> + “I hope you won't look upon me as company, Minty, or I shall be obliged to + call you 'Miss' too,” said Mainwaring, unexpectedly regaining his usual + frankness. + </p> + <p> + Bradley's face brightened; Miss Minty raised her black eyes from her plate + with still broader appreciation. + </p> + <p> + “There's nothin' mean about that,” she said, showing her white teeth. + “Well, what's YOUR first name?” + </p> + <p> + “Not as pretty as yours, I'm afraid. It's Frank.” + </p> + <p> + “No it ain't, it's Francis! You reckon to be Sir Francis some day,” she + said gravely. “You can't play any Frank off on me. You wouldn't do it on + HER,” she added, indicating Louise with her elbow. + </p> + <p> + A momentous silence followed. The particular form that Minty's vulgarity + had taken had not been anticipated by the two other women. They had, not + unreasonably, expected some original audacity or gaucherie from the + blacksmith's daughter, which might astonish yet amuse their guest, and + condone for the situation forced upon them. But they were not prepared for + a playfulness that involved themselves in a ridiculous indiscretion. Mrs. + Bradley's eyes sought her husband's meaningly; Louise's pretty mouth + hardened. Luckily the cheerful cause of it suddenly jumped up from the + table, and saying that the stranger was starving, insisted upon bringing a + dish from the other side and helping him herself plentifully. Mainwaring + rose gallantly to take the dish from her hand, a slight scuffle ensued + which ended in the young man being forced down in his chair by the + pressure of Minty's strong plump hand on his shoulder. “There,” she said, + “ye kin mind your dinner now, and I reckon we'll give the others a chance + to chip into the conversation,” and at once applied herself to the plate + before her. + </p> + <p> + The conversation presently became general, with the exception that Minty, + more or less engrossed by professional anxiety in the quality of the + dinner and occasional hurried visits to the kitchen, briefly answered the + few polite remarks which Mainwaring felt called upon to address to her. + Nevertheless, he was conscious, malgre her rallying allusions to Miss + Macy, that he felt none of the vague yet half pleasant anxiety with which + Louise was beginning to inspire him. He felt at ease in Minty's presence, + and believed, rightly or wrongly, that she understood him as well as he + understood her. And there were certainly points in common between his two + hostesses and their humbler though proud dependent. The social evolution + of Mrs. Bradley and Louise Macy from some previous Minty was neither + remote nor complete; the self-sufficient independence, ease, and quiet + self-assertion were alike in each. The superior position was still too + recent and accidental for either to resent or criticise qualities that + were common to both. At least, this was what he thought when not + abandoning himself to the gratification of a convalescent appetite; to the + presence of two pretty women, the sympathy of a genial friend, the healthy + intoxication of the white sunlight that glanced upon the pine walls, the + views that mirrored themselves in the open windows, and the pure + atmosphere in which The Lookout seemed to swim. Wandering breezes of balm + and spice lightly stirred the flowers on the table, and seemed to fan his + hair and forehead with softly healing breath. Looking up in an interval of + silence, he caught Bradley's gray eyes fixed upon him with a subdued light + of amusement and affection, as of an elder brother regarding a schoolboy's + boisterous appetite at some feast. Mainwaring laid down his knife and fork + with a laughing color, touched equally by Bradley's fraternal kindliness + and the consciousness of his gastronomical powers. + </p> + <p> + “Hang it, Bradley; look here! I know my appetite's disgraceful, but what + can a fellow do? In such air, with such viands and such company! It's like + the bees getting drunk on Hybla and Hymettus, you know. I'm not + responsible!” + </p> + <p> + “It's the first square meal I believe you've really eaten in six months,” + said Bradley, gravely. “I can't understand why your doctor allowed you to + run down so dreadfully.” + </p> + <p> + “I reckon you ain't as keerful of yourself, you Britishers, ez us,” said + Minty. “Lordy! Why there's Pop invests in more patent medicines in one day + than you have in two weeks, and he'd make two of you. Mebbe your folks + don't look after you enough.” + </p> + <p> + “I'm a splendid advertisement of what YOUR care and your medicines have + done,” said Mainwaring, gratefully, to Mrs. Bradley; “and if you ever want + to set up a 'Cure' here, I'm ready with a ten-page testimonial.” + </p> + <p> + “Have a care, Mainwaring,” said Bradley, laughing, “that the ladies don't + take you at your word. Louise and Jenny have been doing their best for the + last year to get me to accept a flattering offer from a Sacramento firm to + put up a hotel for tourists on the site of The Lookout. Why, I believe + that they have already secretly in their hearts concocted a flaming + prospectus of 'Unrivalled Scenery' and 'Health-giving Air,' and are + looking forward to Saturday night hops on the piazza.” + </p> + <p> + “Have you really, though?” said Mainwaring, gazing from the one to the + other. + </p> + <p> + “We should certainly see more company than we do now, and feel a little + less out of the world,” said Louise, candidly. “There are no neighbors + here—I mean the people at the Summit are not,” she added, with a + slight glance towards Minty. + </p> + <p> + “And Mr. Bradley would find it more profitable—not to say more + suitable to a man of his position—than this wretched saw-mill and + timber business,” said Mrs. Bradley, decidedly. + </p> + <p> + Mainwaring was astounded; was it possible they considered it more + dignified for a lawyer to keep a hotel than a saw-mill? Bradley, as if + answering what was passing in his mind, said mischievously, “I'm not sure, + exactly, what my position is, my dear, and I'm afraid I've declined the + hotel on business principles. But, by the way, Mainwaring, I found a + letter at the mill this morning from Mr. Richardson. He is about to pay us + the distinguished honor of visiting The Lookout, solely on your account, + my dear fellow.” + </p> + <p> + “But I wrote him that I was much better, and it wasn't necessary for him + to come,” said Mainwaring. + </p> + <p> + “He makes an excuse of some law business with me. I suppose he considers + the mere fact of his taking the trouble to come here, all the way from San + Francisco, a sufficient honor to justify any absence of formal + invitation,” said Bradley, smiling. + </p> + <p> + “But he's only—I mean he's my father's banker,” said Mainwaring, + correcting himself, “and—you don't keep a hotel.” + </p> + <p> + “Not yet,” returned Bradley, with a mischievous glance at the two women, + “but The Lookout is elastic, and I dare say we can manage to put him up.” + </p> + <p> + A silence ensued. It seemed as if some shadow, or momentary darkening of + the brilliant atmosphere; some film across the mirror-like expanse of the + open windows, or misty dimming of their wholesome light, had arisen to + their elevation. Mainwaring felt that he was looking forward with + unreasoning indignation and uneasiness to this impending interruption of + their idyllic life; Mrs. Bradley and Louise, who had become a little more + constrained and formal under Minty's freedom, were less sympathetic; even + the irrepressible Minty appeared absorbed in the responsibilities of the + dinner. + </p> + <p> + Bradley alone preserved his usual patient good-humor. “We'll take our + coffee on the veranda, and the ladies will join us by and by, Mainwaring; + besides, I don't know that I can allow you, as an invalid, to go entirely + through Minty's bountiful menu at present. You shall have the sweets + another time.” + </p> + <p> + When they were alone on the veranda, he said, between the puffs of his + black brier-wood pipe,—a pet aversion of Mrs. Bradley,—“I + wonder how Richardson will accept Minty!” + </p> + <p> + “If I can, I think he MUST,” returned Mainwaring, dryly. “By Jove, it will + be great fun to see him; but”—he stopped and hesitated—“I + don't know about the ladies. I don't think, you know, that they'll stand + Minty again before another stranger.” + </p> + <p> + Bradley glanced quickly at the young man; their eyes met, and they both + joined in a superior and, I fear, disloyal smile. After a pause Bradley, + as if in a spirit of further confidence, took his pipe from his mouth and + pointed to the blue abyss before them. + </p> + <p> + “Look at that profundity, Mainwaring, and think of it ever being bullied + and overawed by a long veranda-load of gaping, patronizing tourists, and + the idiotic flirting females of their species. Think of a lot of + over-dressed creatures flouting those severe outlines and deep-toned + distances with frippery and garishness. You know how you have been lulled + to sleep by that delicious, indefinite, far-off murmur of the canyon at + night—think of it being broken by a crazy waltz or a monotonous + german—by the clatter of waiters and the pop of champagne corks. And + yet, by thunder, those women are capable of liking both and finding no + discord in them!” + </p> + <p> + “Dancing ain't half bad, you know,” said Mainwaring, conscientiously, “if + a chap's got the wind to do it; and all Americans, especially the women, + dance better than we do. But I say, Bradley, to hear you talk, a fellow + wouldn't suspect you were as big a Vandal as anybody, with a beastly, + howling saw-mill in the heart of the primeval forest. By Jove, you quite + bowled me over that first day we met, when you popped your head out of + that delirium tremens shaking mill, like the very genius of destructive + improvement.” + </p> + <p> + “But that was FIGHTING Nature, not patronizing her; and it's a business + that pays. That reminds me that I must go back to it,” said Bradley, + rising and knocking the ashes from his pipe. + </p> + <p> + “Not AFTER dinner, surely!” said Mainwaring, in surprise. “Come now, + that's too much like the bolting Yankee of the travellers' books.” + </p> + <p> + “There's a heavy run to get through tonight. We're working against time,” + returned Bradley. Even while speaking he had vanished within the house, + returned quickly—having replaced his dark suit by jean trousers + tucked in heavy boots, and a red flannel shirt over his starched white one—and, + nodding gayly to Mainwaring, stepped from the lower end of the veranda. + “The beggar actually looks pleased to go,” said Mainwaring to himself in + wonderment. + </p> + <p> + “Oh! Jim,” said Mrs. Bradley, appearing at the door. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said Bradley, faintly, from the bushes. + </p> + <p> + “Minty's ready. You might take her home.” + </p> + <p> + “All right. I'll wait.” + </p> + <p> + “I hope I haven't frightened Miss Sharpe away,” said Mainwaring. “She + isn't going, surely?” + </p> + <p> + “Only to get some better clothes, on account of company. I'm afraid you + are giving her a good deal of trouble, Mr. Mainwaring,” said Mrs. Bradley, + laughing. + </p> + <p> + “She wished me to say good-by to you for her, as she couldn't come on the + veranda in her old shawl and sun-bonnet,” added Louise, who had joined + them. “What do you really think of her, Mr. Mainwaring? I call her quite + pretty, at times. Don't you?” + </p> + <p> + Mainwaring knew not what to say. He could not understand why they could + have any special interest in the girl, or care to know what he, a perfect + stranger, thought of her. He avoided a direct reply, however, by playfully + wondering how Mrs. Bradley could subject her husband to Miss Minty's + undivided fascinations. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Jim always takes her home—if it's in the evening. He gets along + with these people better than we do,” returned Mrs. Bradley, dryly. “But,” + she added, with a return of her piquant Quaker-like coquettishness, “Jim + says we are to devote ourselves to you to-night—in retaliation, I + suppose. We are to amuse you, and not let you get excited; and you are to + be sent to bed early.” + </p> + <p> + It is to be feared that these latter wise precautions—invaluable for + all defenceless and enfeebled humanity—were not carried out: and it + was late when Mainwaring eventually retired, with brightened eyes and a + somewhat accelerated pulse. For the ladies, who had quite regained that + kindly equanimity which Minty had rudely interrupted, had also added a + delicate and confidential sympathy in their relations with Mainwaring,—as + of people who had suffered in common,—and he experienced these + tender attentions at their hands which any two women are emboldened by + each other's saving presence to show any single member of our sex. Indeed, + he hardly knew if his satisfaction was the more complete when Mrs. + Bradley, withdrawing for a few moments, left him alone on the veranda with + Louise and the vast, omnipotent night. + </p> + <p> + For a while they sat silent, in the midst of the profound and measureless + calm. Looking down upon the dim moonlit abyss at their feet, they + themselves seemed a part of this night that arched above it; the + half-risen moon appeared to linger long enough at their side to enwrap and + suffuse them with its glory; a few bright stars quietly ringed themselves + around them, and looked wonderingly into the level of their own shining + eyes. For some vague yearning to humanity seemed to draw this dark and + passionless void towards them. The vast protecting maternity of Nature + leant hushed and breathless over the solitude. Warm currents of air rose + occasionally from the valley, which one might have believed were sighs + from its full and overflowing breast, or a grateful coolness swept their + cheeks and hair when the tranquil heights around them were moved to slowly + respond. Odors from invisible bay and laurel sometimes filled the air; the + incense of some rare and remoter cultivated meadow beyond their ken, or + the strong germinating breath of leagues of wild oats, that had yellowed + the upland by day. In the silence and shadow, their voices took upon + themselves, almost without their volition, a far-off confidential murmur, + with intervals of meaning silence—rather as if their thoughts had + spoken for themselves, and they had stopped wonderingly to listen. They + talked at first vaguely to this discreet audience of space and darkness, + and then, growing bolder, spoke to each other and of themselves. Invested + by the infinite gravity of nature, they had no fear of human ridicule to + restrain their youthful conceit or the extravagance of their unimportant + confessions. They talked of their tastes, of their habits, of their + friends and acquaintances. They settled some points of doctrine, duty, and + etiquette, with the sweet seriousness of youth and its all-powerful + convictions. The listening vines would have recognized no flirtation or + love-making in their animated but important confidences; yet when Mrs. + Bradley reappeared to warn the invalid that it was time to seek his couch, + they both coughed slightly in the nervous consciousness of some + unaccustomed quality in their voices, and a sense of interruption far + beyond their own or the innocent intruder's ken. + </p> + <p> + “Well?” said Mrs. Bradley, in the sitting-room as Mainwaring's steps + retreated down the passage to his room. + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said Louise with a slight yawn, leaning her pretty shoulders + languidly against the door-post, as she shaded her moonlight-accustomed + eyes from the vulgar brilliancy of Mrs. Bradley's bedroom candle. “Well—oh, + he talked a great deal about 'his people' as he called them, and I talked + about us. He's very nice. You know in some things he's really like a boy.” + </p> + <p> + “He looks much better.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes; but he is far from strong yet.” + </p> + <p> + Meantime, Mainwaring had no other confidant of his impressions than his + own thoughts. Mingled with his exaltation, which was the more seductive + that it had no well-defined foundation for existing, and implied no future + responsibility, was a recurrence of his uneasiness at the impending visit + of Richardson the next day. Strangely enough, it had increased under the + stimulus of the evening. Just as he was really getting on with the family, + he felt sure that this visitor would import some foreign element into + their familiarity, as Minty had done. It was possible they would not like + him: now he remembered there was really something ostentatiously British + and insular about this Richardson—something they would likely + resent. Why couldn't this fellow have come later—or even before? + Before what? But here he fell asleep, and almost instantly slipped from + this veranda in the Sierras, six thousand miles away, to an ancient + terrace, overgrown with moss and tradition, that overlooked the sedate + glory of an English park. Here he found himself, restricted painfully by + his inconsistent night-clothes, endeavoring to impress his mother and + sisters with the singular virtues and excellences of his American host and + hostesses—virtues and excellences that he himself was beginning to + feel conscious had become more or less apocryphal in that atmosphere. He + heard his mother's voice saying severely, “When you learn, Francis, to + respect the opinions and prejudices of your family enough to prevent your + appearing before them in this uncivilized aboriginal costume, we will + listen to what you have to say of the friends whose habits you seem to + have adopted;” and he was frantically indignant that his efforts to + convince them that his negligence was a personal oversight, and not a + Californian custom, were utterly futile. But even then this vision was + brushed away by the bewildering sweep of Louise's pretty skirt across the + dreamy picture, and her delicate features and softly-fringed eyes remained + the last to slip from his fading consciousness. + </p> + <p> + The moon rose higher and higher above the sleeping house and softly + breathing canyon. There was nothing to mar the idyllic repose of the + landscape; only the growing light of the last two hours had brought out in + the far eastern horizon a dim white peak, that gleamed faintly among the + stars, like a bridal couch spread between the hills fringed with fading + nuptial torches. No one would have believed that behind that impenetrable + shadow to the west, in the heart of the forest, the throbbing saw-mill of + James Bradley was even at that moment eating its destructive way through + the conserved growth of Nature and centuries, and that the refined + proprietor of house and greenwood, with the glow of his furnace fires on + his red shirt, and his alert, intelligent eyes, was the genie of that + devastation, and the toiling leader of the shadowy, toiling figures around + him. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPER III. + </h2> + <p> + Amid the beauty of the most uncultivated and untrodden wilderness there + are certain localities where the meaner and mere common processes of + Nature take upon themselves a degrading likeness to the slovenly, + wasteful, and improvident processes of man. The unrecorded land-slip + disintegrating a whole hillside will not only lay bare the delicate + framework of strata and deposit to the vulgar eye, but hurl into the + valley a debris so monstrous and unlovely as to shame even the hideous + ruins left by dynamite, hydraulic, or pick and shovel; an overflown and + forgotten woodland torrent will leave in some remote hollow a disturbed + and ungraceful chaos of inextricable logs, branches, rock, and soil that + will rival the unsavory details of some wrecked or abandoned settlement. + Of lesser magnitude and importance, there are certain natural dust-heaps, + sinks, and cesspools, where the elements have collected the cast-off, + broken, and frayed disjecta of wood and field—the sweepings of the + sylvan household. It was remarkable that Nature, so kindly considerate of + mere human ruins, made no attempt to cover up or disguise these monuments + of her own mortality: no grass grew over the unsightly landslides, no moss + or ivy clothed the stripped and bleached skeletons of overthrown branch + and tree; the dead leaves and withered husks rotted in their open grave + uncrossed by vine and creeper. Even the animals, except the lower + organizations, shunned those haunts of decay and ruin. + </p> + <p> + It was scarcely a hundred yards from one of those dreary receptacles that + Mr. Bradley had taken leave of Miss Minty Sharpe. The cabin occupied by + her father, herself, and a younger brother stood, in fact, on the very + edge of the little hollow, which was partly filled with decayed wood, + leaves, and displacements of the crumbling bank, with the coal dust and + ashes which Mr. Sharpe had added from his forge, that stood a few paces + distant at the corner of a cross-road. The occupants of the cabin had also + contributed to the hollow the refuse of their household in broken boxes, + earthenware, tin cans, and cast-off clothing; and it is not improbable + that the site of the cabin was chosen with reference to this convenient + disposal of useless and encumbering impedimenta. It was true that the + locality offered little choice in the way of beauty. An outcrop of brown + granite—a portent of higher altitudes—extended a quarter of a + mile from the nearest fringe of dwarf laurel and “brush” in one direction; + in the other an advanced file of Bradley's woods had suffered from some + long-forgotten fire, and still raised its blackened masts and broken + stumps over the scorched and arid soil, swept of older underbrush and + verdure. On the other side of the road a dark ravine, tangled with briers + and haunted at night by owls and wild cats, struggled wearily on, until + blundering at last upon the edge of the Great Canyon, it slipped and lost + itself forever in a single furrow of those mighty flanks. When Bradley had + once asked Sharpe why he had not built his house in the ravine, the + blacksmith had replied: “That until the Lord had appointed his time, he + reckoned to keep his head above ground and the foundations thereof.” + Howbeit, the ravine, or the “run,” as it was locally known, was Minty's + only Saturday afternoon resort for recreation or berries. “It was,” she + had explained, “pow'ful soothin', and solitary.” + </p> + <p> + She entered the house—a rude, square building of unpainted boards—containing + a sitting-room, a kitchen, and two bedrooms. A glance at these rooms, + which were plainly furnished, and whose canvas-colored walls were adorned + with gorgeous agricultural implement circulars, patent medicine calendars, + with polytinted chromos and cheaply-illuminated Scriptural texts, showed + her that a certain neatness and order had been preserved during her + absence; and, finding the house empty, she crossed the barren and + blackened intervening space between the back door and her father's forge, + and entered the open shed. The light was fading from the sky; but the glow + of the forge lit up the dusty road before it, and accented the blackness + of the rocky ledge beyond. A small curly-headed boy, bearing a singular + likeness to a smudged and blackened crayon drawing of Minty, was + mechanically blowing the bellows and obviously intent upon something else; + while her father—a powerfully built man, with a quaintly + dissatisfied expression of countenance—was with equal want of + interest mechanically hammering at a horseshoe. Without noticing Minty's + advent, he lazily broke into a querulous drawling chant of some vague + religious character: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “O tur-ren, sinner; tur-ren. + For the Lord bids you turn—ah! + O tur-ren, sinner; tur-ren. + Why will you die?” + </pre> + <p> + The musical accent adapted itself to the monotonous fall of the + sledge-hammer; and at every repetition of the word “turn” he suited the + action to the word by turning the horseshoe with the iron in his left + hand. A slight grunt at the end of every stroke, and the simultaneous + repetition of “turn” seemed to offer him amusement and relief. Minty, + without speaking, crossed the shop, and administered a sound box on her + brother's ear. “Take that, and let me ketch you agen layin' low when my + back's turned, to put on your store pants.” + </p> + <p> + “The others had fetched away in the laig,” said the boy, opposing a knee + and elbow at acute angle to further attack. + </p> + <p> + “You jest get and change 'em,” said Minty. + </p> + <p> + The sudden collapse of the bellows broke in upon the soothing refrain of + Mr. Sharpe, and caused him to turn also. + </p> + <p> + “It's Minty,” he said, replacing the horseshoe on the coals, and setting + his powerful arms and the sledge on the anvil with an exaggerated + expression of weariness. + </p> + <p> + “Yes; it's me,” said Minty, “and Creation knows it's time I DID come, to + keep that boy from ruinin' us with his airs and conceits.” + </p> + <p> + “Did ye bring over any o' that fever mixter?” + </p> + <p> + “No. Bradley sez you're loading yerself up with so much o' that bitter + bark—kuinine they call it over there—that you'll lift the ruff + off your head next. He allows ye ain't got no ague; it's jest wind and + dyspepsy. He sez yer's strong ez a hoss.” + </p> + <p> + “Bradley,” said Sharpe, laying aside his sledge with an aggrieved manner + which was, however, as complacent as his fatigue and discontent, “ez one + of them nat'ral born finikin skunks ez I despise. I reckon he began to + give p'ints to his parents when he was about knee-high to Richelieu there. + He's on them confidential terms with hisself and the Almighty that he + reckons he ken run a saw-mill and a man's insides at the same time with + one hand tied behind him. And this finikin is up to his conceit: he wanted + to tell me that that yer handy brush dump outside our shanty was + unhealthy. Give a man with frills like that his own way and he'd be a + sprinkling odor cologne and peppermint all over the country.” + </p> + <p> + “He set your shoulder as well as any doctor,” said Minty. + </p> + <p> + “That's bone-settin', and a nat'ral gift,” returned Sharpe, as + triumphantly as his habitual depression would admit; “it ain't conceit and + finikin got out o' books! Well,” he added, after a pause, “wot's + happened?” + </p> + <p> + Minty's face slightly changed. “Nothin'; I kem back to get some things,” + she said shortly, moving away. + </p> + <p> + “And ye saw HIM?” + </p> + <p> + “Ye-e-s,” drawled Minty, carelessly, still retreating. + </p> + <p> + “Bixby was along here about noon. He says the stranger was suthin' high + and mighty in his own country, and them 'Frisco millionaires are quite + sweet on him. Where are ye goin'?” + </p> + <p> + “In the house.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, look yer, Minty. Now that you're here, ye might get up a batch o' + hot biscuit for supper. Dinner was that promiscous and experimental + to-day, along o' Richelieu's nat'ral foolin', that I think I could git + outside of a little suthin' now, if only to prop up a kind of innard + sinkin' that takes me. Ye ken tell me the news at supper.” + </p> + <p> + Later, however, when Mr. Sharpe had quitted his forge for the night and, + seated at his domestic board, was, with a dismal presentiment of future + indigestion, voraciously absorbing his favorite meal of hot saleratus + biscuits swimming in butter, he had apparently forgotten his curiosity + concerning Mainwaring and settled himself to a complaining chronicle of + the day's mishaps. “Nat'rally, havin' an extra lot o' work on hand and no + time for foolin', what does that ornery Richelieu get up and do this + mornin'? Ye know them ridiklus specimens that he's been chippin' outer + that ledge that the yearth slipped from down the run, and litterin' up the + whole shanty with 'em. Well, darn my skin! if he didn't run a heap of 'em, + mixed up with coal, unbeknowned to me, in the forge, to make what he + called a 'fire essay' of 'em. Nat'rally, I couldn't get a blessed iron + hot, and didn't know what had gone of the fire, or the coal either, for + two hours, till I stopped work and raked out the coal. That comes from his + hangin' round that saw-mill in the woods, and listenin' to Bradley's + high-falutin' talk about rocks and strata and sich.” + </p> + <p> + “But Bradley don't go a cent on minin', Pop,” said Minty. “He sez the + woods is good enough for him; and there's millions to be made when the + railroad comes along, and timber's wanted.” + </p> + <p> + “But until then he's got to keep hisself, to pay wages, and keep the mill + runnin'. Onless it's, ez Bixby says, that he hopes to get that Englishman + to rope in some o' them 'Frisco friends of his to take a hand. Ye didn't + have any o' that kind o' talk, did ye?” + </p> + <p> + “No; not THAT kind o' talk,” said Minty. + </p> + <p> + “Not THAT kind o' talk!” repeated her father with aggrieved curiosity, + “Wot kind, then?” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said Minty, lifting her black eyes to her father's; “I ain't no + account, and you ain't no account either. You ain't got no college + education, ain't got no friends in 'Frisco, and ain't got no high-toned + style; I can't play the pianner, jabber French, nor get French dresses. We + ain't got no fancy 'Shallet,' as they call it, with a first-class view of + nothing; but only a shanty on dry rock. But, afore I'D take advantage of a + lazy, gawky boy—for it ain't anything else, though he's good meanin' + enough—that happened to fall sick in MY house, and coax and cosset + him, and wrap him in white cotton, and mother him, and sister him, and + Aunt Sukey him, and almost dry-nuss him gin'rally, jist to get him sweet + on me and on mine, and take the inside track of others—I'D be an + Injin! And if you'd allow it, Pop, you'd be wuss nor a nigger!” + </p> + <p> + “Sho!” said her father, kindling with that intense gratification with + which the male receives any intimation of alien feminine weakness. “It + ain't that, Minty, I wanter know!” + </p> + <p> + “It's jist that, Pop; and I ez good ez let 'em know I seed it. I ain't a + fool, if some folks do drop their eyes and pertend to wipe the laugh out + of their noses with a handkerchief when I let out to speak. I mayn't be + good enough kempany—” + </p> + <p> + “Look yer, Minty,” interrupted the blacksmith, sternly, half rising from + his seat with every trace of his former weakness vanished from his hardset + face; “do you mean to say that they put on airs to ye—to MY darter?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” said Minty quickly; “the men didn't; and don't you, a man, mix + yourself up with women's meannesses. I ken manage 'em, Pop, with one + hand.” + </p> + <p> + Mr. Sharpe looked at his daughter's flashing black eyes. Perhaps an uneasy + recollection of the late Mrs. Sharpe's remarkable capacity in that respect + checked his further rage. + </p> + <p> + “No. Wot I was sayin',” resumed Minty, “ez that I mayn't be thought by + others good enough to keep kempany with baronetts ez is to be—though + baronetts mightn't object—but I ain't mean enough to try to steal + away some ole woman's darling boy in England, or snatch some likely young + English girl's big brother outer the family without sayin' by your leave. + How'd you like it if Richelieu was growed up, and went to sea,—and + it would be like his peartness,—and he fell sick in some foreign + land, and some princess or other skyulged HIM underhand away from us?” + </p> + <p> + Probably owing to the affair of the specimens, the elder Sharpe did not + seem to regard the possible mesalliance of Richelieu with extraordinary + disfavor. “That boy is conceited enough with hair ile and fine clothes for + anything,” he said plaintively. “But didn't that Louise Macy hev a feller + already—that Captain Greyson? Wot's gone o' him?” + </p> + <p> + “That's it,” said Minty: “he kin go out in the woods and whistle now. But + all the same, she could hitch him in again at any time if the other + stranger kicked over the traces. That's the style over there at The + Lookout. There ain't ez much heart in them two women put together ez would + make a green gal flush up playin' forfeits. It's all in their breed, Pop. + Love ain't going to spile their appetites and complexions, give 'em + nose-bleed, nor put a drop o' water into their eyes in all their natural + born days. That's wot makes me mad. Ef I thought that Loo cared a bit for + that child I wouldn't mind; I'd just advise her to make him get up and get—pack + his duds out o' camp, and go home and not come back until he had a written + permit from his mother, or the other baronet in office.” + </p> + <p> + “Looks sorter ef some one orter interfere,” said the blacksmith, + reflectively. “'Tain't exackly a case for a vigilance committee, tho' it's + agin public morals, this sorter kidnappin' o' strangers. Looks ez if it + might bring the country into discredit in England.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, don't YOU go and interfere and havin' folks say ez my nose was put + out o' jint over there,” said Minty, curtly. “There's another Englishman + comin' up from 'Frisco to see him to-morrow. Ef he ain't scooped up by + Jenny Bradley he'll guess there's a nigger in the fence somewhere. But + there, Pop, let it drop. It's a bad aig, anyway,” she concluded, rising + from the table, and passing her hands down her frock and her shapely hips, + as if to wipe off further contamination of the subject. “Where's Richelieu + agin?” + </p> + <p> + “Said he didn't want supper, and like ez not he's gone over to see that + fammerly at the Summit. There's a little girl thar he's sparkin', about + his own age.” + </p> + <p> + “His own age!” said Minty, indignantly. “Why, she's double that, if she's + a day. Well—if he ain't the triflinest, conceitednest little limb + that ever grew! I'd like to know where he got it from—it wasn't + mar's style.” + </p> + <p> + Mr. Sharpe smiled darkly. Richelieu's precocious gallantry evidently was + not considered as gratuitous as his experimental metallurgy. But as his + eyes followed his daughter's wholesome, Phyllis-like figure, a new idea + took possession of him: needless to say, however, it was in the line of + another personal aggrievement, albeit it took the form of religious + reflection. + </p> + <p> + “It's curous, Minty, wot's foreordained, and wot ain't. Now, yer's one of + them high and mighty fellows, after the Lord, ez comes meanderin' around + here, and drops off—ez fur ez I kin hear—in a kind o' faint at + the first house he kems to, and is taken in and lodged and sumptuously + fed; and, nat'rally, they gets their reward for it. Now wot's to hev kept + that young feller from coming HERE and droppin' down in my forge, or in + this very room, and YOU a tendin' him, and jist layin' over them folks at + The Lookout?” + </p> + <p> + “Wot's got hold o' ye, Pop? Don't I tell ye he had a letter to Jim + Bradley?” said Minty, quickly, with an angry flash of color in her cheek. + </p> + <p> + “That ain't it,” said Sharpe confidently; “it's cos he WALKED. Nat'rally, + you'd think he'd RIDE, being high and mighty, and that's where, ez the + parson will tell ye, wot's merely fi-nite and human wisdom errs! Ef that + feller had ridden, he'd have had to come by this yer road, and by this yer + forge, and stop a spell like any other. But it was foreordained that he + should walk, jest cos it wasn't generally kalkilated and reckoned on. So, + YOU had no show.” + </p> + <p> + For a moment, Minty seemed struck with her father's original theory. But + with a vigorous shake of her shoulders she threw it off. Her eyes + darkened. + </p> + <p> + “I reckon you ain't thinking, Pop—” she began. + </p> + <p> + “I was only sayin' it was curous,” he rejoined quietly. Nevertheless, + after a pause, he rose, coughed, and going up to the young girl, as she + leaned over the dresser, bent his powerful arm around her, and, drawing + her and the plate she was holding against his breast, laid his bearded + cheek for an instant softly upon her rebellious head. “It's all right, + Minty,” he said; “ain't it, pet?” Minty's eyelids closed gently under the + familiar pressure. “Wot's that in your hair, Minty?” he said tactfully, + breaking an embarrassing pause. + </p> + <p> + “Bar's grease, father,” murmured Minty, in a child's voice—the + grown-up woman, under that magic touch, having lapsed again into her + father's motherless charge of ten years before. + </p> + <p> + “It's pow'ful soothin', and pretty,” said her father. + </p> + <p> + “I made it myself—do you want some?” asked Minty. + </p> + <p> + “Not now, girl!” For a moment they slightly rocked each other in that + attitude—the man dexterously, the woman with infinite tenderness—and + then they separated. + </p> + <p> + Late that night, after Richelieu had returned, and her father wrestled in + his fitful sleep with the remorse of his guilty indulgence at supper, + Minty remained alone in her room, hard at work, surrounded by the contents + of one of her mother's trunks and the fragments of certain ripped-up and + newly-turned dresses. For Minty had conceived the bold idea of altering + one of her mother's gowns to the fashion of a certain fascinating frock + worn by Louise Macy. It was late when her self-imposed task was completed. + With a nervous trepidation that was novel to her, Minty began to disrobe + herself preparatory to trying on her new creation. The light of a tallow + candle and a large swinging lantern, borrowed from her father's forge, + fell shyly on her milky neck and shoulders, and shone in her sparkling + eyes, as she stood before her largest mirror—the long glazed door of + a kitchen clock which she had placed upon her chest of drawers. Had poor + Minty been content with the full, free, and goddess-like outlines that it + reflected, she would have been spared her impending disappointment. For, + alas! the dress of her model had been framed upon a symmetrically + attenuated French corset, and the unfortunate Minty's fuller and ampler + curves had under her simple country stays known no more restraining + cincture than knew the Venus of Milo. The alteration was a hideous + failure, it was neither Minty's statuesque outline nor Louise Macy's + graceful contour. Minty was no fool, and the revelation of this slow + education of the figure and training of outline—whether fair or + false in art—struck her quick intelligence with all its full and + hopeless significance. A bitter light sprang to her eyes; she tore the + wretched sham from her shoulders, and then wrapping a shawl around her, + threw herself heavily and sullenly on the bed. But inaction was not a + characteristic of Minty's emotion; she presently rose again, and, taking + an old work-box from her trunk, began to rummage in its recesses. It was + an old shell-incrusted affair, and the apparent receptacle of such cheap + odds and ends of jewelry as she possessed; a hideous cameo ring, the + property of the late Mrs. Sharpe, was missing. She again rapidly explored + the contents of the box, and then an inspiration seized her, and she + darted into her brother's bedroom. + </p> + <p> + That precocious and gallant Lovelace of ten, despite all sentiment, had + basely succumbed to the gross materialism of youthful slumber. On a cot in + the corner, half hidden under the wreck of his own careless and hurried + disrobing, with one arm hanging out of the coverlid, Richelieu lay + supremely unconscious. On the forefinger of his small but dirty hand the + missing cameo was still glittering guiltily. With a swift movement of + indignation Minty rushed with uplifted palm towards the tempting expanse + of youthful cheek that lay invitingly exposed upon the pillow. Then she + stopped suddenly. + </p> + <p> + She had seen him lying thus a hundred times before. On the pillow near him + an indistinguishable mass of golden fur—the helpless bulk of a + squirrel chained to the leg of his cot; at his feet a wall-eyed cat, who + had followed his tyrannous caprices with the long-suffering devotion of + her sex; on the shelf above him a loathsome collection of flies and + tarantulas in dull green bottles: a slab of ginger-bread for light + nocturnal refection, and her own pot of bear's grease. Perhaps it was the + piteous defencelessness of youthful sleep, perhaps it was some lingering + memory of her father's caress; but as she gazed at him with troubled eyes, + the juvenile reprobate slipped back into the baby-boy that she had carried + in her own childish arms such a short time ago, when the maternal + responsibility had descended with the dead mother's ill-fitting dresses + upon her lank girlish figure and scant virgin breast—and her hand + fell listlessly at her side. + </p> + <p> + The sleeper stirred slightly and awoke. At the same moment, by some + mysterious sympathy, a pair of beady bright eyes appeared in the bulk of + fur near his curls, the cat stretched herself, and even a vague agitation + was heard in the bottles on the shelf. Richelieu's blinking eyes wandered + from the candle to his sister, and then the guilty hand was suddenly + withdrawn under the bedclothes. + </p> + <p> + “No matter, dear,” said Minty; “it's mar's, and you kin wear it when you + like, if you'll only ask for it.” + </p> + <p> + Richelieu wondered if he was dreaming! This unexpected mildness—this + inexplicable tremor in his sister's voice: it must be some occult + influence of the night season on the sisterly mind, possibly akin to a + fear of ghosts! He made a mental note of it in view of future favors, yet + for the moment he felt embarrassedly gratified. “Ye ain't wantin' + anything, Minty,” he said affectionately; “a pail o' cold water from the + far spring—no nothin'?” He made an ostentatious movement as if to + rise, yet sufficiently protracted to prevent any hasty acceptance of his + prodigal offer. + </p> + <p> + “No, dear,” she said, still gazing at him with an absorbed look in her + dark eyes. + </p> + <p> + Richelieu felt a slight creepy sensation under that lonely far-off gaze. + “Your eyes look awful big at night, Minty,” he said. He would have added + “and pretty,” but she was his sister, and he had the lofty fraternal + conviction of his duty in repressing the inordinate vanity of the sex. + “Ye're sure ye ain't wantin' nothin'?” + </p> + <p> + “Not now, dear.” She paused a moment, and then said deliberately: “But you + wouldn't mind turnin' out after sun-up and runnin' an errand for me over + to The Lookout?” + </p> + <p> + Richelieu's eyes sparkled so suddenly that even in her absorption Minty + noticed the change. “But ye're not goin' to tarry over there, ner gossip—you + hear? Yer to take this yer message. Yer to say 'that it will be onpossible + for me to come back there, on account—on account of—'” + </p> + <p> + “Important business,” suggested Richelieu; “that's the perlite style.” + </p> + <p> + “Ef you like.” She leaned over the bed and put her lips to his forehead, + still damp with the dews of sleep, and then to his long-lashed lids. “Mind + Nip!”—the squirrel—he practically suggested. For an instant + their blond curls mingled on the pillow. “Now go to sleep,” she said + curtly. + </p> + <p> + But Richelieu had taken her white neck in the short strangulatory hug of + the small boy, and held her fast. “Ye'll let me put on my best pants?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “And wear that ring?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes”—a little sadly. + </p> + <p> + “Then yer kin count me in, Minty; and see here”—his voice sank to a + confidential whisper—“mebbee some day ye'll be beholden to ME for a + lot o' real jewelry.” + </p> + <p> + She returned slowly to her room, and, opening the window, looked out upon + the night. The same moon that had lent such supererogatory grace to the + natural beauty of The Lookout, here seemed to have failed; as Minty had, + in disguising the relentless limitations of Nature or the cruel bonds of + custom. The black plain of granite, under its rays, appeared only to + extend its poverty to some remoter barrier; the blackened stumps of the + burnt forest stood bleaker against the sky, like broken and twisted + pillars of iron. The cavity of the broken ledge where Richelieu had + prospected was a hideous chasm of bluish blackness, over which a purple + vapor seemed to hover; the “brush dump” beside the house showed a cavern + of writhing and distorted objects stiffened into dark rigidity. She had + often looked upon the prospect: it had never seemed so hard and + changeless; yet she accepted it, as she had accepted it before. + </p> + <p> + She turned away, undressed herself mechanically, and went to bed. She had + an idea that she had been very foolish; that her escape from being still + more foolish was something miraculous, and in some measure connected with + Providence, her father, her little brother, and her dead mother, whose + dress she had recklessly spoiled. But that she had even so slightly + touched the bitterness and glory of renunciation—as written of + heroines and fine ladies by novelists and poets—never entered the + foolish head of Minty Sharpe, the blacksmith's daughter. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPER IV. + </h2> + <p> + It was a little after daybreak next morning that Mainwaring awoke from the + first unrefreshing night he had passed at The Lookout. He was so feverish + and restless that he dressed himself at sunrise, and cautiously stepped + out upon the still silent veranda. The chairs which he and Louise Macy had + occupied were still, it seemed to him, conspicuously confidential with + each other, and he separated them, but as he looked down into the Great + Canyon at his feet he was conscious of some undefinable change in the + prospect. A slight mist was rising from the valley, as if it were the last + of last night's illusions; the first level sunbeams were obtrusively + searching, and the keen morning air had a dryly practical insistence which + irritated him, until a light footstep on the farther end of the veranda + caused him to turn sharply. + </p> + <p> + It was the singular apparition of a small boy, bearing a surprising + resemblance to Minty Sharpe, and dressed in an unique fashion. On a + tumbled sea of blond curls a “chip” sailor hat, with a broad red ribbon, + rode jauntily. But here the nautical suggestion changed, as had the desire + of becoming a pirate which induced it. A red shirt, with a white collar, + and a yellow plaid ribbon tie, that also recalled Minty Sharpe, lightly + turned the suggestion of his costume to mining. Short black velvet + trousers, coming to his knee, and ostentatiously new short-legged boots, + with visible straps like curling ears, completed the entirely original + character of his lower limbs. + </p> + <p> + Mainwaring, always easily gentle and familiar with children and his + inferiors, looked at him with an encouraging smile. Richelieu—for it + was he—advanced gravely and held out his hand, with the cameo ring + apparent. Mainwaring, with equal gravity, shook it warmly, and removed his + hat. Richelieu, keenly observant, did the same. + </p> + <p> + “Is Jim Bradley out yet?” asked Richelieu, carelessly. + </p> + <p> + “No; I think not. But I'm Frank Mainwaring. Will I do?” + </p> + <p> + Richelieu smiled. The dimples, the white teeth, the dark, laughing eyes, + were surely Minty's? + </p> + <p> + “I'm Richelieu,” he rejoined with equal candor. + </p> + <p> + “Richelieu?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes. That Frenchman—the Lord Cardinal—you know. Mar saw + Forrest do him out in St. Louis.” + </p> + <p> + “Do him?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, in the theayter.” + </p> + <p> + With a confused misconception of his meaning, Mainwaring tried to recall + the historical dress of the great Cardinal and fit it to the masquerader—if + such he were—before him. But Richelieu relieved him by adding,— + </p> + <p> + “Richelieu Sharpe.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, that's your NAME!” said Mainwaring, cheerfully. “Then you're Miss + Minty's brother. I know her. How jolly lucky!” + </p> + <p> + They both shook hands again. Richelieu, eager to get rid of the burden of + his sister's message, which he felt was in the way of free-and-easy + intercourse with this charming stranger, looked uneasily towards the + house. + </p> + <p> + “I say,” said Mainwaring, “if you're in a hurry, you'd better go in there + and knock. I hear some one stirring in the kitchen.” + </p> + <p> + Richelieu nodded, but first went back to the steps of the veranda, picked + up a small blue knotted handkerchief, apparently containing some heavy + objects, and repassed Mainwaring. + </p> + <p> + “What! have you cut it, Richelieu, with your valuables? What have you got + there?” + </p> + <p> + “Specimins,” said Richelieu, shortly, and vanished. + </p> + <p> + He returned presently. “Well, Cardinal, did you see anybody?” asked + Mainwaring. + </p> + <p> + “Mrs. Bradley; but Jim's over to the mill. I'm goin' there.” + </p> + <p> + “Did you see Miss Macy?” continued Mainwaring, carelessly. + </p> + <p> + “Loo?” + </p> + <p> + “Loo!—well; yes.” + </p> + <p> + “No. She's philanderin' with Captain Greyson.” + </p> + <p> + “Philandering with Greyson?” echoed Mainwaring, in wonder. + </p> + <p> + “Yes; on horseback on the ridge.” + </p> + <p> + “You mean she's riding out with Mr.—with Captain Greyson?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes; ridin' AND philanderin',” persisted Richelieu. + </p> + <p> + “And what do you call philandering?” + </p> + <p> + “Well; I reckon you and she oughter know,” returned Richelieu, with a + precocious air. + </p> + <p> + “Certainly,” said Mainwaring, with a faint smile. Richelieu really was + like Minty. + </p> + <p> + There was a long silence. This young Englishman was becoming exceedingly + uninteresting. Richelieu felt that he was gaining neither profit nor + amusement, and losing time. “I'm going,” he said. + </p> + <p> + “Good morning,” said Mainwaring, without looking up. + </p> + <p> + Richelieu picked up his specimens, thoroughly convinced of the stranger's + glittering deceitfulness, and vanished. + </p> + <p> + It was nearly eight o'clock when Mrs. Bradley came from the house. She + apologized, with a slightly distrait smile, for the tardiness of the + household. “Mr. Bradley stayed at the mill all night, and will not be here + until breakfast, when he brings your friend Mr. Richardson with him”—Mainwaring + scarcely repressed a movement of impatience—“who arrives early. It's + unfortunate that Miss Sharpe can't come to-day.” + </p> + <p> + In his abstraction Mainwaring did not notice that Mrs. Bradley slightly + accented Minty's formal appellation, and said carelessly,— + </p> + <p> + “Oh, that's why her brother came over here so early!” + </p> + <p> + “Did YOU see him?” asked Mrs. Bradley, almost abruptly. + </p> + <p> + “Yes. He is an amusing little beggar; but I think he shares his sister's + preference for Mr. Bradley. He deserted me here in the veranda for him at + the mill.” + </p> + <p> + “Louise will keep you company as soon as she has changed her dress,” + continued Mrs. Bradley. “She was out riding early this morning with a + friend. She's very fond of early morning rides.” + </p> + <p> + “AND philandering,” repeated Mainwaring to himself. It was quite natural + for Miss Macy to ride out in the morning, after the fashion of the + country, with an escort; but why had the cub insisted on the + “philandering”? He had said, “AND philandering,” distinctly. It was a + nasty thing for him to say. Any other fellow but he, Mainwaring, might + misunderstand the whole thing. Perhaps he ought to warn her—but no! + he could not repeat the gossip of a child, and that child the brother of + one of her inferiors. But was Minty an inferior? Did she and Minty talk + together about this fellow Greyson? At all events, it would only revive + the awkwardness of the preceding day, and he resolved to say nothing. + </p> + <p> + He was rewarded by a half-inquiring, half-confiding look in Louise's + bright eyes, when she presently greeted him on the veranda. “She had quite + forgotten,” she said, “to tell him last night of her morning's engagement; + indeed, she had half forgotten IT. It used to be a favorite practice of + hers, with Captain Greyson; but she had lately given it up. She believed + she had not ridden since—since—” + </p> + <p> + “Since when?” asked Mainwaring. + </p> + <p> + “Well, since you were ill,” she said frankly. + </p> + <p> + A quick pleasure shone in Mainwaring's cheek and eye; but Louise's pretty + lids did not drop, nor her faint, quiet bloom deepen. Breakfast was + already waiting when Mr. Richardson arrived alone. + </p> + <p> + He explained that Mr. Bradley had some important and unexpected business + which had delayed him, but which, he added, “Mr. Bradley says may prove + interesting enough to you to excuse his absence this morning.” Mainwaring + was not displeased that his critical and observant host was not present at + their meeting. Louise Macy was, however, as demurely conscious of the + different bearing of the two compatriots. Richardson's somewhat + self-important patronage of the two ladies, and that Californian + familiarity he had acquired, changed to a certain uneasy deference towards + Mainwaring; while the younger Englishman's slightly stiff and deliberate + cordiality was, nevertheless, mingled with a mysterious understanding that + appeared innate and unconscious. Louise was quick to see that these two + men, more widely divergent in quality than any two of her own countrymen, + were yet more subtly connected by some unknown sympathy than the most + equal of Americans. Minty's prophetic belief of the effect of the two + women upon Richardson was certainly true as regarded Mrs. Bradley. The + banker—a large material nature—was quickly fascinated by the + demure, puritanic graces of that lady, and was inclined to exhibit a + somewhat broad and ostentatious gallantry that annoyed Mainwaring. When + they were seated alone on the veranda, which the ladies had discreetly + left to them, Richardson said,— + </p> + <p> + “Odd I didn't hear of Bradley's wife before. She seems a spicy, pretty, + comfortable creature. Regularly thrown away with him up here.” + </p> + <p> + Mainwaring replied coldly that she was “an admirable helpmeet of a very + admirable man,” not, however, without an uneasy recollection of her + previous confidences respecting her husband. “They have been most + thoroughly good and kind to me; my own brother and sister could not have + done more. And certainly not with better taste or delicacy,” he added, + markedly. + </p> + <p> + “Certainly, certainly,” said Richardson, hurriedly. “I wrote to Lady + Mainwaring that you were taken capital care of by some very honest people; + and that—” + </p> + <p> + “Lady Mainwaring already knows what I think of them, and what she owes to + their kindness,” said Mainwaring, dryly. + </p> + <p> + “True, true,” said Richardson, apologetically. “Of course you must have + seen a good deal of them. I only know Bradley in a business way. He's been + trying to get the Bank to help him to put up some new mills here; but we + didn't see it. I dare say he is good company—rather amusing, eh?” + </p> + <p> + Mainwaring had the gift of his class of snubbing by the polite and + forgiving oblivion of silence. Richardson shifted uneasily in his chair, + but continued with assumed carelessness:— + </p> + <p> + “No; I only knew of this cousin, Miss Macy. I heard of her when she was + visiting some friends in Menlo Park last year. Rather an attractive girl. + They say Colonel Johnson, of Sacramento, took quite a fancy to her—it + would have been a good match, I dare say, for he is very rich—but + the thing fell through in some way. Then, they say, SHE wanted to marry + that Spaniard, young Pico, of the Amador Ranche; but his family wouldn't + hear of it. Somehow, she's deuced unlucky. I suppose she'll make a mess of + it with Captain Greyson she was out riding with this morning.” + </p> + <p> + “Didn't the Bank think Bradley's mills a good investment?” asked + Mainwaring quietly, when Richardson paused. + </p> + <p> + “Not with him in it; he is not a business man, you know.” + </p> + <p> + “I thought he was. He seems to me an energetic man, who knows his work, + and is not afraid to look after it himself.” + </p> + <p> + “That's just it. He has got absurd ideas of co-operating with his workmen, + you know, and doing everything slowly and on a limited scale. The only + thing to be done is to buy up all the land on this ridge, run off the + settlers, freeze out all the other mills, and put it into a big San + Francisco company on shares. That's the only way we would look at it.” + </p> + <p> + “But you don't consider the investment bad, even from HIS point of view?” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps not.” + </p> + <p> + “And you only decline it because it isn't big enough for the Bank?” + </p> + <p> + “Exactly.” + </p> + <p> + “Richardson,” said Mainwaring, slowly rising, putting his hands in his + trousers pockets, and suddenly looking down upon the banker from the easy + level of habitual superiority, “I wish you'd attend to this thing for me. + I desire to make some return to Mr. Bradley for his kindness. I wish to + give him what help he wants—in his own way—you understand. I + wish it, and I believe my father wishes it, too. If you'd like him to + write to you to that effect—” + </p> + <p> + “By no means, it's not at all necessary,” said Richardson, dropping with + equal suddenness into his old-world obsequiousness. “I shall certainly do + as you wish. It is not a bad investment, Mr. Mainwaring, and as you + suggest, a very proper return for their kindness. And, being here, it will + come quite naturally for me to take up the affair again.” + </p> + <p> + “And—I say, Richardson.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, sir?” + </p> + <p> + “As these ladies are rather short-handed in their domestic service, you + know, perhaps you'd better not stay to luncheon or dinner, but go on to + the Summit House—it's only a mile or two farther—and come back + here this evening. I shan't want you until then.” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly!” stammered Richardson. “I'll just take leave of the ladies!” + </p> + <p> + “It's not at all necessary,” said Mainwaring, quietly; “you would only + disturb them in their household duties. I'll tell them what I've done with + you, if they ask. You'll find your stick and hat in the passage, and you + can leave the veranda by these steps. By the way, you had better manage at + the Summit to get some one to bring my traps from here to be forwarded to + Sacramento to-morrow. I'll want a conveyance, or a horse of some kind, + myself, for I've given up walking for a while; but we can settle about + that to-night. Come early. Good morning?” + </p> + <p> + He accompanied his thoroughly subjugated countryman—who, however, + far from attempting to reassert himself, actually seemed easier and more + cheerful in his submission—to the end of the veranda, and watched + him depart. As he turned back, he saw the pretty figure of Louise Macy + leaning against the doorway. How graceful and refined she looked in that + simple morning dress! What wonder that she was admired by Greyson, by + Johnson, and by that Spaniard!—no, by Jove, it was SHE that wanted + to marry him! + </p> + <p> + “What have you sent away Mr. Richardson for?” asked the young girl, with a + half-reproachful, half-mischievous look in her bright eyes. + </p> + <p> + “I packed him off because I thought it was a little too hard on you and + Mrs. Bradley to entertain him without help.” + </p> + <p> + “But as he was OUR guest, you might have left that to us,” said Miss Macy. + </p> + <p> + “By Jove! I never thought of that,” said Mainwaring, coloring in + consternation. “Pray forgive me, Miss Macy—but you see I knew the + man, and could say it, and you couldn't.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, I forgive you, for you look really so cut up,” said Louise, + laughing. “But I don't know what Jenny will say of your disposing of her + conquest so summarily.” She stopped and regarded him more attentively. + “Has he brought you any bad news? if so, it's a pity you didn't send him + away before. He's quite spoiling our cure.” + </p> + <p> + Mainwaring thought bitterly that he had. “But it's a cure for all that, + Miss Macy,” he said, with an attempt at cheerfulness, “and being a cure, + you see, there's no longer an excuse for my staying here. I have been + making arrangements for leaving here to-morrow.” + </p> + <p> + “So soon?” + </p> + <p> + “Do you think it soon, Miss Macy?” asked Mainwaring, turning pale in spite + of himself. + </p> + <p> + “I quite forgot—that you were here as an invalid only, and that we + owe our pleasure to the accident of your pain.” + </p> + <p> + She spoke a little artificially, he thought, yet her cheeks had not lost + their pink bloom, nor her eyes their tranquillity. Had he heard Minty's + criticism he might have believed that the organic omission noticed by her + was a fact. + </p> + <p> + “And now that your good work as Sister of Charity is completed, you'll be + able to enter the world of gayety again with a clear conscience,” said + Mainwaring, with a smile that he inwardly felt was a miserable failure. + “You'll be able to resume your morning rides, you know, which the wretched + invalid interrupted.” + </p> + <p> + Louise raised her clear eyes to his, without reproach, indignation, or + even wonder. He felt as if he had attempted an insult and failed. + </p> + <p> + “Does my cousin know you are going so soon?” she asked finally. + </p> + <p> + “No, I did not know myself until to-day. You see,” he added hastily, while + his honest blood blazoned the lie in his cheek, “I've heard of some + miserable business affairs that will bring me back to England sooner that + I expected.” + </p> + <p> + “I think you should consider your health more important than any mere + business,” said Louise. “I don't mean that you should remain HERE,” she + added with a hasty laugh, “but it would be a pity, now that you have + reaped the benefit of rest and taking care of yourself, that you should + not make it your only business to seek it elsewhere.” + </p> + <p> + Mainwaring longed to say that within the last half hour, living or dying + had become of little moment to him; but he doubted the truth or efficacy + of this timeworn heroic of passion. He felt, too, that anything he said + was a mere subterfuge for the real reason of his sudden departure. And how + was he to question her as to that reason? In escaping from these + subterfuges—he was compelled to lie again. With an assumption of + changing the subject, he said calmly, “Richardson thought he had met you + before—in Menlo Park, I think.” + </p> + <p> + Amazed at the evident irrelevance of the remark, Louise said coldly, that + she did not remember having seen him before. + </p> + <p> + “I think it was at a Mr. Johnson's—or WITH a Mr. Johnson—or + perhaps at one of those Spanish ranches—I think he mentioned some + name like Pico!” + </p> + <p> + Louise looked at him wonderingly for an instant, and then gave way to a + frank, irrepressible laugh, which lent her delicate but rather set little + face all the color he had missed. Partially relieved by her unconcern, and + yet mortified that he had only provoked her sense of the ludicrous, he + tried to laugh also. + </p> + <p> + “Then, to be quite plain,” said Louise, wiping her now humid eyes, “you + want me to understand that you really didn't pay sufficient attention to + hear correctly! Thank you; that's a pretty English compliment, I suppose.” + </p> + <p> + “I dare say you wouldn't call it 'philandering'?” + </p> + <p> + “I certainly shouldn't, for I don't know what 'philandering' means.” + </p> + <p> + Mainwaring could not reply, with Richelieu, “You ought to know”; nor did + he dare explain what he thought it meant, and how he knew it. Louise, + however, innocently solved the difficulty. + </p> + <p> + “There's a country song I've heard Minty sing,” she said. “It runs— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Come, Philander, let us be a-marchin', + Every one for his true love a-sarchin' + Choose your true love now or never. . . . +</pre> + <p> + Have you been listening to her also?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” said Mainwaring, with a sudden incomprehensible, but utterly + irrepressible, resolution; “but I'M 'a-marchin',' you know, and perhaps I + must 'choose my true love now or never.' Will you help me, Miss Macy?” + </p> + <p> + He drew gently near her. He had become quite white, but also very manly, + and it struck her, more deeply, thoroughly, and conscientiously sincere + than any man who had before addressed her. She moved slightly away, as if + to rest herself by laying both hands upon the back of the chair. + </p> + <p> + “Where do you expect to begin your 'sarchin''?” she said, leaning on the + chair and tilting it before her; “or are you as vague as usual as to + locality? Is it at some 'Mr. Johnson' or 'Mr. Pico,' or—” + </p> + <p> + “Here,” he interrupted boldly. + </p> + <p> + “I really think you ought to first tell my cousin that you are going away + to-morrow,” she said, with a faint smile. “It's such short notice. She's + just in there.” She nodded her pretty head, without raising her eyes, + towards the hall. + </p> + <p> + “But it may not be so soon,” said Mainwaring. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, then the 'sarchin'' is not so important?” said Louise, raising her + head, and looking towards the hall with some uneasy but indefinable + feminine instinct. + </p> + <p> + She was right; the sitting-room door opened, and Mrs. Bradley made her + smiling appearance. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Mainwaring was just looking for you,” said Louise, for the first time + raising her eyes to him. “He's not only sent off Mr. Richardson, but he's + going away himself to-morrow.” + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Bradley looked from the one to the other in mute wonder. Mainwaring + cast an imploring glance at Louise, which had the desired effect. Much + more seriously, and in a quaint, business-like way, the young girl took it + upon herself to explain to Mrs. Bradley that Richardson had brought the + invalid some important news that would, unfortunately, not only shorten + his stay in America, but even compel him to leave The Lookout sooner than + he expected, perhaps to-morrow. Mainwaring thanked her with his eyes, and + then turned to Mrs. Bradley. + </p> + <p> + “Whether I go to-morrow or next day,” he said with simple and earnest + directness, “I intend, you know, to see you soon again, either here or in + my own home in England. I do not know,” he added with marked gravity, + “that I have succeeded in convincing you that I have made your family + already well known to my people, and that”—he fixed his eyes with a + meaning look on Louise—“no matter when, or in what way, you come to + them, your place is made ready for you. You may not like them, you know: + the governor is getting to be an old man—perhaps too old for young + Americans—but THEY will like YOU, and you must put up with that. My + mother and sisters know Miss Macy as well as I do, and will make her one + of the family.” + </p> + <p> + The conscientious earnestness with which these apparent conventionalities + were uttered, and some occult quality of quiet conviction in the young + man's manner, brought a pleasant sparkle to the eyes of Mrs. Bradley and + Louise. + </p> + <p> + “But,” said Mrs. Bradley, gayly, “our going to England is quite beyond our + present wildest dreams; nothing but a windfall, an unexpected rise in + timber, or even the tabooed hotel speculation, could make it possible.” + </p> + <p> + “But I shall take the liberty of trying to present it to Mr. Bradley + tonight in some practical way that may convince even his critical + judgment,” said Mainwaring, still seriously. “It will be,” he added more + lightly, “the famous testimonial of my cure which I promised you.” + </p> + <p> + “And you will find Mr. Bradley so sceptical that you will be obliged to + defer your going,” said Mrs. Bradley, triumphantly. “Come, Louise, we must + not forget that we have still Mr. Mainwaring's present comfort to look + after; that Minty has basely deserted us, and that we ourselves must see + that the last days of our guest beneath our roof are not remembered for + their privation.” + </p> + <p> + She led Louise away with a half-mischievous suggestion of maternal + propriety, and left Mainwaring once more alone on the veranda. + </p> + <p> + He had done it! Certainly she must have understood his meaning, and there + was nothing left for him to do but to acquaint Bradley with his intentions + to-night, and press her for a final answer in the morning. There would be + no indelicacy then in asking her for an interview more free from + interruption than this public veranda. Without conceit, he did not doubt + what the answer would be. His indecision, his sudden resolution to leave + her, had been all based upon the uncertainty of HIS own feelings, the + propriety of HIS declaration, the possibility of some previous experience + of hers that might compromise HIM. Convinced by her unembarrassed manner + of her innocence, or rather satisfied of her indifference to Richardson's + gossip, he had been hurried by his feelings into an unexpected avowal. + Brought up in the perfect security of his own social position, and + familiarly conscious—without vanity—of its importance and + power in such a situation, he believed, without undervaluing Louise's + charms or independence, that he had no one else than himself to consult. + Even the slight uneasiness that still pursued him was more due to his + habitual conscientiousness of his own intention than to any fear that she + would not fully respond to it. Indeed, with his conservative ideas of + proper feminine self-restraint, Louise's calm passivity and + undemonstrative attitude were a proof of her superiority; had she blushed + overmuch, cried, or thrown herself into his arms, he would have doubted + the wisdom of so easy a selection. It was true he had known her scarcely + three weeks; if he chose to be content with that, his own accessible + record of three centuries should be sufficient for her, and condone any + irregularity. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, as an hour slipped away and Louise did not make her + appearance, either on the veranda or in the little sitting-room off the + hall, Mainwaring became more uneasy as to the incompleteness of their + interview. Perhaps a faint suspicion of the inadequacy of her response + began to trouble him; but he still fatuously regarded it rather as owing + to his own hurried and unfinished declaration. It was true that he hadn't + said half what he intended to say; it was true that she might have + misunderstood it as the conventional gallantry of the situation, as—terrible + thought!—the light banter of the habitual love-making American, to + which she had been accustomed; perhaps even now she relegated him to the + level of Greyson, and this accounted for her singular impassiveness—an + impassiveness that certainly was singular now he reflected upon it—that + might have been even contempt. The last thought pricked his deep + conscientiousness; he walked hurriedly up and down the veranda, and then, + suddenly re-entering his room, took up a sheet of note-paper, and began to + write to her:— + </p> + <p> + “Can you grant me a few moments' interview alone? I cannot bear you should + think that what I was trying to tell you when we were interrupted was + prompted by anything but the deepest sincerity and conviction, or that I + am willing it should be passed over lightly by you or be forgotten. Pray + give me a chance of proving it, by saying you will see me. F. M.” + </p> + <p> + But how should he convey this to her? His delicacy revolted against + handing it to her behind Mrs. Bradley's back, or the prestidigitation of + slipping it into her lap or under her plate before them at luncheon; he + thought for an instant of the Chinaman, but gentlemen—except in that + “mirror of nature” the stage—usually hesitate to suborn other + people's servants, or entrust a woman's secret to her inferiors. He + remembered that Louise's room was at the farther end of the house, and its + low window gave upon the veranda, and was guarded at night by a film of + white and blue curtains that were parted during the day, to allow a + triangular revelation of a pale blue and white draped interior. Mainwaring + reflected that the low inside window ledge was easily accessible from the + veranda, would afford a capital lodgment for the note, and be quickly seen + by the fair occupant of the room on entering. He sauntered slowly past the + window; the room was empty, the moment propitious. A slight breeze was + stirring the blue ribbons of the curtain; it would be necessary to secure + the note with something; he returned along the veranda to the steps, where + he had noticed a small irregular stone lying, which had evidently escaped + from Richelieu's bag of treasure specimens, and had been overlooked by + that ingenuous child. It was of a pretty peacock-blue color, and, besides + securing a paper, would be sure to attract her attention. He placed his + note on the inside ledge, and the blue stone atop, and went away with a + sense of relief. + </p> + <p> + Another half hour passed without incident. He could hear the voices of the + two women in the kitchen and dining-room. After a while they appeared to + cease, and he heard the sound of an opening door. It then occurred to him + that the veranda was still too exposed for a confidential interview, and + he resolved to descend the steps, pass before the windows of the kitchen + where Louise might see him, and penetrate the shrubbery, where she might + be induced to follow him. They would not be interrupted nor overheard + there. + </p> + <p> + But he had barely left the veranda before the figure of Richelieu, who had + been patiently waiting for Mainwaring's disappearance, emerged stealthily + from the shrubbery. He had discovered his loss on handing his “fire + assays” to the good-humored Bradley for later examination, and he had + retraced his way, step by step, looking everywhere for his missing stone + with the unbounded hopefulness, lazy persistency, and lofty disregard for + time and occupation known only to the genuine boy. He remembered to have + placed his knotted bag upon the veranda, and, slipping off his stiff boots + slowly and softly, slid along against the wall of the house, looking + carefully on the floor, and yet preserving a studied negligence of + demeanor, with one hand in his pocket, and his small mouth contracted into + a singularly soothing and almost voiceless whistle—Richelieu's own + peculiar accomplishment. But no stone appeared. Like most of his genus he + was superstitious, and repeated to himself the cabalistic formula: + “Losin's seekin's, findin's keepin's”—presumed to be of great + efficacy in such cases—with religious fervor. He had laboriously + reached the end of the veranda when he noticed the open window of Louise's + room, and stopped as a perfunctory duty to look in. And then Richelieu + Sharpe stood for an instant utterly confounded and aghast at this crowning + proof of the absolute infamy and sickening enormity of Man. + </p> + <p> + There was HIS stone—HIS, RICHELIEU'S, OWN SPECIMEN, carefully + gathered by himself and none other—and now stolen, abstracted, + “skyugled,” “smouged,” “hooked” by this “rotten, skunkified, long-legged, + splay-footed, hoss-laughin', nigger-toothed, or'nary despot” And, worse + than all, actually made to do infamous duty as a “love token”—a + “candy-gift!”—a “philanderin' box” to HIS, Richelieu's, girl—for + Louise belonged to that innocent and vague outside seraglio of Richelieu's + boyish dreams—and put atop of a letter to her! and Providence + permitted such an outrage! “Wot was he, Richelieu, sent to school for, and + organized wickedness in the shape of gorilla Injins like this allowed to + ride high horses rampant over Californey!” He looked at the heavens in + mute appeal. And then—Providence not immediately interfering—he + thrust his own small arm into the window, regained his priceless treasure, + and fled swiftly. + </p> + <p> + A fateful silence ensued. The wind slightly moved the curtain outward, as + if in a playful attempt to follow him, and then subsided. A moment later, + apparently re-enforced by other winds, or sympathizing with Richelieu, it + lightly lifted the unlucky missive and cast it softly from the window. But + here another wind, lying in wait, caught it cleverly, and tossed it, in a + long curve, into the abyss. For an instant it seemed to float lazily, as + on the mirrored surface of a lake, until, turning upon its side, it + suddenly darted into utter oblivion. + </p> + <p> + When Mainwaring returned from the shrubbery, he went softly to the window. + The disappearance of the letter and stone satisfied him of the success of + his stratagem, and for the space of three hours relieved his anxiety. But + at the end of that time, finding no response from Louise, his former + uneasiness returned. Was she offended, or—the first doubt of her + acceptance of him crossed his mind! + </p> + <p> + A sudden and inexplicable sense of shame came upon him. At the same + moment, he heard his name called from the steps, turned—and beheld + Minty. + </p> + <p> + Her dark eyes were shining with a pleasant light, and her lips parted on + her white teeth with a frank, happy smile. She advanced and held out her + hand. He took it with a mingling of disappointment and embarrassment. + </p> + <p> + “You're wondering why I kem on here, arter I sent word this morning that I + kelkilated not to come. Well, 'twixt then and now suthin' 's happened. + We've had fine doin's over at our house, you bet! Pop don't know which end + he's standin' on; and I reckon that for about ten minutes I didn't know my + own name. But ez soon ez I got fairly hold o' the hull thing, and had it + put straight in my mind, I sez to myself, Minty Sharpe, sez I, the first + thing for you to do now, is to put on yer bonnet and shawl, and trapse + over to Jim Bradley's and help them two womenfolks get dinner for + themselves and that sick stranger. And,” continued Minty, throwing herself + into a chair and fanning her glowing face with her apron, “yer I am!” + </p> + <p> + “But you have not told me WHAT has happened,” said Mainwaring, with a + constrained smile, and an uneasy glance towards the house. + </p> + <p> + “That's so,” said Minty, with a brilliant laugh. “I clean forgot the hull + gist of the thing. Well, we're rich folks now—over thar' on Barren + Ledge! That onery brother of mine, Richelieu, hez taken some of his + specimens over to Jim Bradley to be tested. And Bradley, just to please + that child, takes 'em; and not an hour ago Bradley comes running, likety + switch, over to Pop to tell him to put up his notices, for the hull of + that ledge where the forge stands is a mine o' silver and copper. Afore ye + knew it, Lordy! half the folks outer the Summit and the mill was scattered + down thar all over it. Richardson—that stranger ez knows you—kem + thar too with Jim, and he allows, ef Bradley's essay is right, it's worth + more than a hundred thousand dollars ez it stands!” + </p> + <p> + “I suppose I must congratulate you, Miss Sharpe,” said Mainwaring with an + attempt at interest, but his attention still preoccupied with the open + doorway. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, THEY know all about it!” said Minty, following the direction of his + abstracted eyes with a slight darkening of her own, “I jest kem out o' the + kitchen the other way, and Jim sent 'em a note; but I allowed I'd tell YOU + myself. Specially ez you are going away to-morrow.” + </p> + <p> + “Who said I was going away to-morrow?” asked Mainwaring, uneasily. + </p> + <p> + “Loo Macy!” + </p> + <p> + “Ah—she did? But I may change my mind, you know!” he continued, with + a faint smile. + </p> + <p> + Minty shook her curls decisively. “I reckon SHE knows,” she said dryly, + “she's got law and gospel for wot she says. But yer she comes. Ask her! + Look yer, Loo,” she added, as the two women appeared at the doorway, with + a certain exaggeration of congratulatory manner that struck Mainwaring as + being as artificial and disturbed as his own, “didn't Sir Francis yer say + he was going to-morrow?” + </p> + <p> + “That's what I understood!” returned Louise, with cold astonishment, + letting her clear indifferent eyes fall upon Mainwaring. “I do not know + that he has changed his mind.” + </p> + <p> + “Unless, as Miss Sharpe is a great capitalist now, she is willing to use + her powers of persuasion,” added Mrs. Bradley, with a slight acidulous + pointing of her usual prim playfulness. + </p> + <p> + “I reckon Minty Sharpe's the same ez she allus wos, unless more so,” + returned Minty, with an honest egotism that carried so much conviction to + the hearer as to condone its vanity. “But I kem yer to do a day's work, + gals, and I allow to pitch in and do it, and not sit yer swoppin' + compliments and keeping HIM from packin' his duds. Onless,” she stopped, + and looked around at the uneasy, unsympathetic circle with a faint + tremulousness of lip that belied the brave black eyes above it, “onless + I'm in yer way.” + </p> + <p> + The two women sprang forward with a feminine bewildering excess of + protestation; and Mainwaring, suddenly pierced through his outer selfish + embarrassment to his more honest depths, stammered quickly— + </p> + <p> + “Look here, Miss Sharpe, if you think of running away again, after having + come all the way here to make us share the knowledge of your good fortune + and your better heart, by Jove! I'll go back with you.” + </p> + <p> + But here the two women effusively hurried her away from the dangerous + proximity of such sympathetic honesty, and a moment later Mainwaring heard + her laughing voice, as of old, ringing in the kitchen. And then, as if + unconsciously responding to the significant common sense that lay in her + last allusion to him, he went to his room and grimly began his packing. + </p> + <p> + He did not again see Louise alone. At their informal luncheon the + conversation turned upon the more absorbing topic of the Sharpes' + discovery, its extent, and its probable effect upon the fortunes of the + locality. He noticed, abstractedly, that both Mrs. Bradley and her cousin + showed a real or assumed scepticism of its value. This did not disturb him + greatly, except for its intended check upon Minty's enthusiasm. He was + more conscious, perhaps,—with a faint touch of mortified vanity,—that + his own contemplated departure was of lesser importance than this local + excitement. Yet in his growing conviction that all was over—if, + indeed, it had ever begun—between himself and Louise, he was + grateful to this natural diversion of incident which spared them both an + interval of embarrassing commonplaces. And, with the suspicion of some + indefinable insincerity—either of his own or Louise's—haunting + him, Minty's frank heartiness and outspoken loyalty gave him a strange + relief. It seemed to him as if the clear cool breath of the forest had + entered with her homely garments, and the steadfast truth of Nature were + incarnate in her shining eyes. How far this poetic fancy would have been + consistent or even coexistent with any gleam of tenderness or + self-forgetfulness in Louise's equally pretty orbs, I leave the satirical + feminine reader to determine. + </p> + <p> + It was late when Bradley at last returned, bringing further and more + complete corroboration of the truth of Sharpe's good fortune. Two experts + had arrived, one from Pine Flat and another from the Summit, and upon this + statement Richardson had offered to purchase an interest in the discovery + that would at once enable the blacksmith to develop his mine. “I shouldn't + wonder, Mainwaring,” he added cheerfully, “if he'd put you into it, too, + and make your eternal fortune.” + </p> + <p> + “With larks falling from the skies all round you, it's a pity YOU couldn't + get put into something,” said Mrs. Bradley, straightening her pretty + brows. + </p> + <p> + “I'm not a gold-miner, my dear,” said Bradley, pleasantly. + </p> + <p> + “Nor a gold-finder,” returned his wife, with a cruel little depression of + her pink nostrils, “but you can work all night in that stupid mill and + then,” she added in a low voice, to escape Minty's attention, “spend the + whole of the next day examining and following up a boy's discovery that + his own relations had been too lazy and too ignorant to understand and + profit by. I suppose that next you will be hunting up a site on the OTHER + SIDE of the Canyon, where somebody else can put up a hotel and ruin your + own prospects.” + </p> + <p> + A sensitive shadow of pain quickly dimmed Bradley's glance—not the + first or last time evidently, for it was gradually bringing out a + background of sadness in his intelligent eyes. But the next moment he + turned kindly to Mainwaring, and began to deplore the necessity of his + early departure, which Richardson had already made known to him with + practical and satisfying reasons. + </p> + <p> + “I hope you won't forget, my dear fellow, that your most really urgent + business is to look after your health; and if, hereafter, you'll only + remember the old Lookout enough to impress that fact upon you, I shall + feel that any poor service I have rendered you has been amply repaid.” + </p> + <p> + Mainwaring, notwithstanding that he winced slightly at this fateful echo + of Louise's advice, returned the grasp of his friend's hand with an honest + pressure equal to his own. He longed now only for the coming of + Richardson, to complete his scheme of grateful benefaction to his host. + </p> + <p> + The banker came fortunately as the conversation began to flag; and Mrs. + Bradley's half-coquettish ill-humor of a pretty woman, and Louise's + abstracted indifference, were becoming so noticeable as to even impress + Minty into a thoughtful taciturnity. The graciousness of his reception by + Mrs. Bradley somewhat restored his former ostentatious gallantry, and his + self-satisfied, domineering manner had enough masculine power in it to + favorably affect the three women, who, it must be confessed, were a little + bored by the finer abstractions of Bradley and Mainwaring. After a few + moments, Mainwaring rose and, with a significant glance at Richardson to + remind him of his proposed conference with Bradley, turned to leave the + room. He was obliged to pass Louise, who was sitting by the table. His + attention was suddenly arrested by something in her hand with which she + was listlessly playing. It was the stone which he had put on his letter to + her. + </p> + <p> + As he had not been present when Bradley arrived, he did not know that this + fateful object had been brought home by his host, who, after receiving it + from Richelieu, had put it in his pocket to illustrate his story of the + discovery. On the contrary, it seemed that Louise's careless exposure of + his foolish stratagem was gratuitously and purposely cruel. Nevertheless, + he stopped and looked at her. + </p> + <p> + “That's a queer stone you have there,” he said, in a tone which she + recognized as coldly and ostentatiously civil. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” she replied, without looking up; “it's the outcrop of that mine.” + She handed it to him as if to obviate any further remark. “I thought you + had seen it before.” + </p> + <p> + “The outcrop,” he repeated dryly. “That is—it—it—it is + the indication or sign of something important that's below it—isn't + it?” + </p> + <p> + Louise shrugged her shoulders sceptically. “It don't follow. It's just as + likely to cover rubbish, after you've taken the trouble to look.” + </p> + <p> + “Thanks,” he said, with measured gentleness, and passed quietly out of the + room. + </p> + <p> + The moon had already risen when Bradley, with his brierwood pipe, preceded + Richardson upon the veranda. The latter threw his large frame into + Louise's rocking-chair near the edge of the abyss; Bradley, with his own + chair tilted against the side of the house after the national fashion, + waited for him to speak. The absence of Mainwaring and the stimulus of + Mrs. Bradley's graciousness had given the banker a certain condescending + familiarity, which Bradley received with amused and ironical tolerance + that his twinkling eyes made partly visible in the darkness. + </p> + <p> + “One of the things I wanted to talk to you about, Bradley, was that old + affair of the advance you asked for from the Bank. We did not quite see + our way to it then, and, speaking as a business man, it isn't really a + matter of business now; but it has lately been put to me in a light that + would make the doing of it possible—you understand? The fact of the + matter is this: Sir Robert Mainwaring, the father of the young fellow + you've got in your house, is one of our directors and largest + shareholders, and I can tell you—if you don't suspect it already—you've + been lucky, Bradley—deucedly lucky—to have had him in your + house and to have rendered him a service. He's the heir to one of the + largest landed estates in his country, one of the oldest county families, + and will step into the title some day. But, ahem!” he coughed + patronizingly, “you knew all that! No? Well, that charming wife of yours, + at least, does; for she's been talking about it. Gad, Bradley, it takes + those women to find out anything of that kind, eh?” + </p> + <p> + The light in Bradley's eyes and his pipe went slowly out together. + </p> + <p> + “Then we'll say that affair of the advance is as good as settled. It's Sir + Robert's wish, you understand, and this young fellow's wish,—and if + you'll come down to the Bank next week we'll arrange it for you; I think + you'll admit they're doing the handsome to you and yours. And therefore,” + he lowered his voice confidentially, “you'll see, Bradley, that it will + only be the honorable thing in you, you know, to look upon the affair as + finished, and, in fact, to do all you can”—he drew his chair closer—“to—to—to + drop this other foolishness.” + </p> + <p> + “I don't think I quite understand you!” said Bradley, slowly. + </p> + <p> + “But your wife does, if you don't,” returned Richardson, bluntly; “I mean + this foolish flirtation between Louise Macy and Mainwaring, which is + utterly preposterous. Why, man, it can't possibly come to anything, and it + couldn't be allowed for a moment. Look at his position and hers. I should + think, as a practical man, it would strike you—” + </p> + <p> + “Only one thing strikes me, Richardson,” interrupted Bradley, in a + singularly distinct whisper, rising, and moving nearer the speaker; “it is + that you're sitting perilously near the edge of this veranda. For, by the + living God, if you don't take yourself out of that chair and out of this + house, I won't be answerable for the consequences!” + </p> + <p> + “Hold on there a minute, will you?” said Mainwaring's voice from the + window. + </p> + <p> + Both men turned towards it. A long leg was protruding from Mainwaring's + window; it was quickly followed by the other leg and body of the occupant, + and the next moment Mainwaring come towards the two men, with his hands in + his pockets. + </p> + <p> + “Not so loud,” he said, looking towards the house. + </p> + <p> + “Let that man go,” said Bradley, in a repressed voice. “You and I, + Mainwaring, can speak together afterwards.” + </p> + <p> + “That man must stay until he hears what I have got to say,” said + Mainwaring, stepping between them. He was very white and grave in the + moonlight, but very quiet; and he did not take his hands from his pockets. + “I've listened to what he said because he came here on MY business, which + was simply to offer to do you a service. That was all, Bradley, that I + told him to do. This rot about what he expects of you in return is his own + impertinence. If you'd punched his head when he began it, it would have + been all right. But since he has begun it, before he goes I think he ought + to hear me tell you that I have already OFFERED myself to Miss Macy, and + she has REFUSED me! If she had given me the least encouragement, I should + have told you before. Further, I want to say that, in spite of that man's + insinuations, I firmly believe that no one is aware of the circumstance + except Miss Macy and myself.” + </p> + <p> + “I had no idea of intimating that anything had happened that was not + highly honorable and creditable to you and the young lady,” began + Richardson hurriedly. + </p> + <p> + “I don't know that it was necessary for you to have any ideas on the + subject at all,” said Mainwaring, sternly; “nor that, having been shown + how you have insulted this gentleman and myself, you need trouble us an + instant longer with your company. You need not come back. I will manage my + other affairs myself.” + </p> + <p> + “Very well, Mr. Mainwaring—but—you may be sure that I shall + certainly take the first opportunity to explain myself to Sir Robert,” + returned Richardson as, with an attempt at dignity, he strode away. + </p> + <p> + There was an interval of silence. + </p> + <p> + “Don't be too hard upon a fellow, Bradley,” said Mainwaring as Bradley + remained dark and motionless in the shadow. “It is a poor return I'm + making you for your kindness, but I swear I never thought of anything like—like—this.” + </p> + <p> + “Nor did I,” said Bradley, bitterly. + </p> + <p> + “I know it, and that's what makes it so infernally bad for me. Forgive me, + won't you? Think of me, old fellow, as the wretchedest ass you ever met, + but not such a cad as this would make me!” As Mainwaring stepped out from + the moonlight towards him with extended hand, Bradley grasped it warmly. + </p> + <p> + “Thanks—there—thanks, old fellow! And, Bradley—I say—don't + say anything to your wife, for I don't think she knows it. And, Bradley—look + here—I didn't like to be anything but plain before that fellow; but + I don't mind telling YOU, now that it's all over, that I really think + Louise—Miss Macy—didn't altogether understand me either.” + </p> + <p> + With another shake of the hand they separated for the night. For a long + time after Mainwaring had gone, Bradley remained gazing thoughtfully into + the Great Canyon. He thought of the time when he had first come there, + full of life and enthusiasm, making an ideal world of his pure and + wholesome eyrie on the ledge. What else he thought will, probably, never + be known until the misunderstanding of honorable and chivalrous men by a + charming and illogical sex shall incite the audacious pen of some more + daring romancer. + </p> + <p> + When he returned to the house, he said kindly to his wife, “I have been + thinking to-day about your hotel scheme, and I shall write to Sacramento + to-night to accept that capitalist's offer.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPER V. + </h2> + <p> + The sun was just rising. In two years of mutation and change it had seen + the little cottage clinging like a swallow's nest to the rocky caves of a + great Sierran canyon give way to a straggling, many-galleried hotel, and a + dozen blackened chimneys rise above the barren tableland where once had + stood the lonely forge. To that conservative orb of light and heat there + must have been a peculiar satisfaction in looking down a few hours earlier + upon the battlements and gables of Oldenhurst, whose base was deeply + embedded in the matured foundations and settled traditions of an English + county. For the rising sun had for ten centuries found Oldenhurst in its + place, from the heavy stone terrace that covered the dead-and-forgotten + wall, where a Roman sentinel had once paced, to the little grating in the + cloistered quadrangle, where it had seen a Cistercian brother place the + morning dole. It had daily welcomed the growth of this vast and + picturesque excrescence of the times; it had smiled every morning upon + this formidable yet quaint incrustation of power and custom, ignoring, as + Oldenhurst itself had ignored, the generations who possessed it, the men + who built it, the men who carried it with fire and sword, the men who had + lied and cringed for it, the King who had given it to a favorite, the few + brave hearts who had died for it in exile, and the one or two who had + bought and paid for it. For Oldenhurst had absorbed all these and more + until it had become a story of the past, incarnate in stone, greenwood, + and flower; it had even drained the life-blood from adjacent hamlets, + repaying them with tumuli growths like its own, in the shape of + purposeless lodges, quaintly incompetent hospitals and schools, and + churches where the inestimable blessing and knowledge of its gospel were + taught and fostered. Nor had it dealt more kindly with the gentry within + its walls, sending some to the scaffold, pillorying others in infamous + office, reducing a few to poverty, and halting its later guests with gout + and paralysis. It had given them in exchange the dubious immortality of a + portrait gallery, from which they stared with stony and equal resignation; + it had preserved their useless armor and accoutrements; it had set up + their marble effigies in churches or laid them in cross-legged attitudes + to trip up the unwary, until in death, as in life, they got between the + congregation and the Truth that was taught there. It had allowed an + Oldenhurst crusader, with a broken nose like a pugilist, on the strength + of his having been twice to the Holy Land, to hide the beautifully + illuminated Word from the lowlier worshipper on the humbler benches; it + had sent an iconoclastic Bishop of the Reformation to a nearer minster to + ostentatiously occupy the place of the consecrated image he had + overthrown. Small wonder that crowding the Oldenhurst retainers gradually + into smaller space, with occasional Sabbath glimpses of the living rulers + of Oldenhurst already in railed-off exaltation, it had forced them to + accept Oldenhurst as a synonym of eternity, and left the knowledge of a + higher Power to what time they should be turned out to their longer sleep + under the tender grass of the beautiful outer churchyard. + </p> + <p> + And even so, while every stone of the pile of Oldenhurst and every tree in + its leafy park might have been eloquent with the story of vanity, + selfishness, and unequal justice, it had been left to the infinite mercy + of Nature to seal their lips with a spell of beauty that left mankind + equally dumb; earth, air, and moisture had entered into a gentle + conspiracy to soften, mellow, and clothe its external blemishes of breach + and accident, its irregular design, its additions, accretions, ruins, and + lapses with a harmonious charm of outline and color; poets, romancers, and + historians had equally conspired to illuminate the dark passages and + uglier inconsistencies of its interior life with the glamour of their own + fancy. The fragment of menacing keep, with its choked oubliettes, became a + bower of tender ivy; the grim story of its crimes, properly edited by a + contemporary bard of the family, passed into a charming ballad. Even the + superstitious darkness of its religious house had escaped through fallen + roof and shattered wall, leaving only the foliated and sun-pierced screen + of front, with its rose-window and pinnacle of cross behind. Pilgrims from + all lands had come to see it; fierce Republicans had crossed the seas to + gaze at its mediaeval outlines, and copy them in wood and stucco on their + younger soil. Politicians had equally pointed to it as a convincing + evidence of their own principles and in refutation of each other; and it + had survived both. For it was this belief in its own perpetuity that was + its strength and weakness. And that belief was never stronger than on this + bright August morning, when it was on the verge of dissolution. A telegram + brought to Sir Robert Mainwaring had even then as completely shattered and + disintegrated Oldenhurst, in all it was and all it meant, as if the + brown-paper envelope had been itself charged with the electric fluid. + </p> + <p> + Sir Robert Mainwaring, whose family had for three centuries possessed + Oldenhurst, had received the news of his financial ruin; and the vast pile + which had survived the repeated invasion of superstition, force, intrigue, + and even progress, had succumbed to a foe its founders and proprietors had + loftily ignored and left to Jews and traders. The acquisition of money, + except by despoilment, gift, royal favor, or inheritance, had been unknown + at Oldenhurst. The present degenerate custodian of its fortunes, + staggering under the weight of its sentimental mortmain already alluded + to, had speculated in order to keep up its material strength, that was + gradually shrinking through impoverished land and the ruined trade it had + despised. He had invested largely in California mines, and was the chief + shareholder in a San Francisco Bank. But the mines had proved worthless, + the Bank had that morning suspended payment, owing to the failure of a + large land and timber company on the Sierras which it had imprudently + “carried.” The spark which had demolished Oldenhurst had been fired from + the new telegraph-station in the hotel above the great Sierran canyon. + </p> + <p> + There was a large house-party at Oldenhurst that morning. But it had been + a part of the history of the Mainwarings to accept defeat gallantly and as + became their blood. Sir Percival,—the second gentleman on the left + as you entered the library,—unhorsed, dying on a distant moor, with + a handful of followers, abandoned by a charming Prince and a miserable + cause, was scarcely a greater hero than this ruined but undaunted + gentleman of eighty, entering the breakfast-room a few hours later as + jauntily as his gout would permit, and conscientiously dispensing the + hospitalities of his crumbling house. When he had arranged a few pleasure + parties for the day and himself thoughtfully anticipated the different + tastes of his guests, he turned to Lady Mainwaring. + </p> + <p> + “Don't forget that somebody ought to go to the station to meet the + Bradleys. Frank writes from St. Moritz that they are due here to-day.” + </p> + <p> + Lady Mainwaring glanced quickly at her husband, and said sotto voce, “Do + you think they'll care to come NOW? They probably have heard all about + it.” + </p> + <p> + “Not how it affects me,” returned Sir Robert, in the same tone; “and as + they might think that because Frank was with them on that California + mountain we would believe it had something to do with Richardson involving + the Bank in that wretched company, we must really INSIST upon their + coming.” + </p> + <p> + “Bradley!” echoed the Hon. Captain FitzHarry, overhearing the name during + a late forage on the sideboard, “Bradley!—there was an awfully + pretty American at Biarritz, travelling with a cousin, I think—a + Miss Mason or Macy. Those sort of people, you know, who have a companion + as pretty as themselves; bring you down with the other barrel if one + misses—eh? Very clever, both of them, and hardly any accent.” + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Bradley was a very dear friend of Frank's, and most kind to him,” + said Lady Mainwaring, gravely. + </p> + <p> + “Didn't know there WAS a Mr. Bradley, really. He didn't come to the fore, + then,” said the unabashed Captain. “Deuced hard to follow up those + American husbands!” + </p> + <p> + “And their wives wouldn't thank you, if you did,” said Lady Griselda + Armiger, with a sweet smile. + </p> + <p> + “If it is the Mrs. Bradley I mean,” said Lady Canterbridge from the lower + end of the table, looking up from her letter, “who looks a little like + Mrs. Summertree, and has a pretty cousin with her who has very good + frocks, I'm afraid you won't be able to get her down here. She's booked + with engagements for the next six weeks. She and her cousin made all the + running at Grigsby Royal, and she has quite deposed that other American + beauty in Northforeland's good graces. She regularly affiche'd him, and it + is piteous to see him follow her about. No, my dear; I don't believe + they'll come to any one of less rank than a Marquis. If they did, I'm sure + Canterbridge would have had them at Buckenthorpe already.” + </p> + <p> + “I wonder if there was ever anything in Frank's admiration of this Miss + Macy?” said Lady Mainwaring a few moments later, lingering beside her + husband in his study. + </p> + <p> + “I really don't know,” said Sir Robert, abstractedly: “his letters were + filled with her praises, and Richardson thought—” + </p> + <p> + “Pray don't mention that man's name again,” said Lady Mainwaring, with the + first indication of feeling she had shown. “I shouldn't trust him.” + </p> + <p> + “But why do you ask?” returned her husband. + </p> + <p> + Lady Mainwaring was silent for a moment. “She is very rich, I believe,” + she said slowly. “At least, Frank writes that some neighbors of theirs + whom he met in the Engadine told him they had sold the site of that absurd + cottage where he was ill for some extravagant sum.” + </p> + <p> + “My dear Geraldine,” said the old man, affectionately, taking his wife's + hand in his own, that now for the first time trembled, “if you have any + hope based upon what you are thinking of now, let it be the last and + least. You forget that Paget told us that with the best care he could + scarcely ensure Frank's return to perfect health. Even if God in his mercy + spared him long enough to take my place, what girl would be willing to tie + herself to a man doomed to sickness and poverty? Hardly the one you speak + of, my dear.” + </p> + <p> + Lady Canterbridge proved a true prophet. Mrs. Bradley and Miss Macy did + not come, regretfully alleging a previous engagement made on the continent + with the Duke of Northforeland and the Marquis of Dungeness; but the + unexpected and apocryphal husband DID arrive. “I myself have not seen my + wife and cousin since I returned from my visit to your son in Switzerland. + I am glad they were able to amuse themselves without waiting for me at a + London hotel, though I should have preferred to have met them here.” Sir + Robert and Lady Mainwaring were courteous but slightly embarrassed. Lady + Canterbridge, who had come to the station in bored curiosity, raised her + clear blue eyes to his. He did not look like a fool, a complaisant or + fashionably-cynical husband—this well-dressed, well-mannered, but + quietly and sympathetically observant man. Did he really care for his + selfish wife? was it perfect trust or some absurd Transatlantic custom? + She did not understand him. It wearied her and she turned her eyes + indifferently away. Bradley, a little irritated, he knew not why, at the + scrutiny of this tall, handsome, gentlemanly-looking woman, who, however, + in spite of her broad shoulders and narrow hips possessed a refined + muliebrity superior to mere womanliness of outline, turned slightly + towards Sir Robert. “Lady Canterbridge, Frank's cousin,” explained Sir + Robert, hesitatingly, as if conscious of some vague awkwardness. Bradley + and Lady Canterbridge both bowed,—possibly the latter's salutation + was the most masculine,—and Bradley, eventually forgetting her + presence, plunged into an earnest, sympathetic, and intelligent account of + the condition in which he found the invalid at St. Moritz. The old man at + first listened with an almost perfunctory courtesy and a hesitating + reserve; but as Bradley was lapsing into equal reserve and they drove up + to the gates of the quadrangle, he unexpectedly warmed with a word or two + of serious welcome. Looking up with a half-unconscious smile, Bradley met + Lady Canterbridge's examining eyes. + </p> + <p> + The next morning, finding an opportunity to be alone with him, Bradley, + with a tactful mingling of sympathy and directness informed his host that + he was cognizant of the disaster that had overtaken the Bank, and + delicately begged him to accept any service he could render him. “Pardon + me,” he said, “if I speak as plainly to you as I would to your son: my + friendship for him justifies an equal frankness to any one he loves; but I + should not intrude upon your confidence if I did not believe that my + knowledge and assistance might be of benefit to you. Although I did not + sell my lands to Richardson or approve of his methods,” he continued, “I + fear it was some suggestion of mine that eventually induced him to form + the larger and more disastrous scheme that ruined the Bank. So you see,” + he added lightly, “I claim a right to offer you my services.” Touched by + Bradley's sincerity and discreet intelligence, Sir Robert was equally + frank. During the recital of his Californian investments—a chronicle + of almost fatuous speculation and imbecile enterprise—Bradley was + profoundly moved at the naive ignorance of business and hopeless + ingenuousness of this old habitue of a cynical world and an intriguing and + insincere society, to whom no scheme had been too wild for acceptance. As + Bradley listened with a half-saddened smile to the grave visions of this + aged enthusiast, he remembered the son's unsophisticated simplicity: what + he had considered as the “boyishness” of immaturity was the taint of the + utterly unpractical Mainwaring blood. It was upon this blood, and others + like it, that Oldenhurst had for centuries waxed and fattened. + </p> + <p> + Bradley was true to his promise of assistance, and with the aid of two or + three of his brother-millionaires, whose knowledge of the resources of the + locality was no less powerful and convincing than the security of their + actual wealth, managed to stay the immediate action of the catastrophe + until the affairs of the Sierran Land and Timber Company could be examined + and some plan of reconstruction arranged. + </p> + <p> + During this interval of five months, in which the credit of Sir Robert + Mainwaring was preserved with the secret of his disaster, Bradley was a + frequent and welcome visitor to Oldenhurst. Apart from his strange and + chivalrous friendship for the Mainwarings—which was as + incomprehensible to Sir Robert as Sir Robert's equally eccentric and + Quixotic speculations had been to Bradley—he began to feel a + singular and weird fascination for the place. A patient martyr in the vast + London house he had taken for his wife and cousin's amusement, he loved to + escape the loneliness of its autumn solitude or the occasional greater + loneliness of his wife's social triumphs. The handsome, thoughtful man who + sometimes appeared at the foot of his wife's table or melted away like a + well-bred ghost in the hollow emptiness of her brilliant receptions, + piqued the languid curiosity of a few. A distinguished personage, known + for his tactful observance of convenances that others forgot, had made a + point of challenging this gentlemanly apparition, and had followed it up + with courteous civilities, which led to exchange of much respect but no + increase of acquaintance. He had even spent a week at Buckenthorpe, with + Canterbridge in the coverts and Lady Canterbridge in the music-room and + library. He had returned more thoughtful, and for some time after was more + frequent in his appearances at home, and more earnest in his renewed + efforts to induce his wife to return to America with him. + </p> + <p> + “You'll never be happy anywhere but in California, among those common + people,” she replied; “and while I was willing to share your poverty + THERE,” she added dryly, “I prefer to share your wealth among civilized + ladies and gentlemen. Besides,” she continued, “we must consider Louise. + She is as good as engaged to Lord Dunshunner, and I do not intend that you + shall make a mess of her affairs here as you did in California.” + </p> + <p> + It was the first time he had heard of Lord Dunshunner's proposals; it was + the first allusion she had ever made to Louise and Mainwaring. + </p> + <p> + Meantime, the autumn leaves had fallen silently over the broad terraces of + Oldenhurst with little changes to the fortunes of the great house itself. + The Christmas house-party included Lady Canterbridge, whose husband was + still detained at Homburg in company with Dunshunner; and Bradley, whose + wife and cousin lingered on the continent. He was slightly embarrassed + when Lady Canterbridge turned to him one afternoon as they were returning + from the lake and congratulated him abruptly upon Louise's engagement. + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps you don't care to be congratulated,” she said, as he did not + immediately respond, “and you had as little to do with it as with that + other? It is a woman's function.” + </p> + <p> + “What other?” echoed Bradley. + </p> + <p> + Lady Canterbridge slightly turned her handsome head towards him as she + walked unbendingly at his side. “Tell me how you manage to keep your + absolute simplicity so fresh. Do you suppose it wasn't known at Oldenhurst + that Frank had quite compromised himself with Miss Macy over there?” + </p> + <p> + “It certainly was not known 'over there,'” said Bradley, curtly. + </p> + <p> + “Don't be angry with me.” + </p> + <p> + Such an appeal from the tall, indifferent woman at his side, so + confidently superior to criticism, and uttered in a low tone, made him + smile, albeit uneasily. + </p> + <p> + “I only meant to congratulate you,” she continued carelessly. “Dunshunner + is not a bad sort of fellow, and will come into a good property some day. + And then, society is so made up of caprice, just now, that it is well for + your wife's cousin to make the most of her opportunities while they last. + She is very popular now; but next season—” Seeing that Bradley + remained silent, she did not finish the sentence, but said with her usual + abruptness, “Do you know a Miss Araminta Eulalie Sharpe?” + </p> + <p> + Bradley started. Could any one recognize honest Minty in the hopeless + vulgarity which this fine lady had managed to carelessly import into her + name? His eye kindled. + </p> + <p> + “She is an old friend of mine, Lady Canterbridge.” + </p> + <p> + “How fortunate! Then I can please you by giving you good news of her. She + is the coming sensation. They say she is very rich, but quite one of the + people, you know: in fact, she makes no scruples of telling you her father + was a blacksmith, I think, and takes the dear old man with her everywhere. + FitzHarry raves about her, and says her naivete is something too + delicious. She is regularly in with some of the best people already. Lady + Dungeness has taken her up, and Northforeland is only waiting for your + cousin's engagement to be able to go over decently. Shall I ask her to + Buckenthorpe?—come, now, as an apology for my rudeness to your + cousin?” She was very womanly now in spite of her high collar, her + straight back, and her tightly-fitting jacket, as she stood there smiling. + Suddenly, her smile faded; she drew her breath in quickly. + </p> + <p> + She had caught a glimpse of his usually thoughtful face and eyes, now + illuminated with some pleasant memory. + </p> + <p> + “Thank you,” he said smilingly, yet with a certain hesitation, as he + thought of The Lookout and Araminta Eulalie Sharpe, and tried to reconcile + them with the lady before him. “I should like it very much.” + </p> + <p> + “Then you have known Miss Sharpe a long time?” continued Lady Canterbridge + as they walked on. + </p> + <p> + “While we were at The Lookout she was our nearest neighbor.” + </p> + <p> + “And I suppose your wife will consider it quite proper for you to see her + again at my house?” said Lady Canterbridge, with a return of conventional + levity. + </p> + <p> + “Oh! quite,” said Bradley. + </p> + <p> + They had reached the low Norman-arched side-entrance to the quadrangle. As + Bradley swung open the bolt-studded oaken door to let her pass, she said + carelessly,— + </p> + <p> + “Then you are not coming in now?” + </p> + <p> + “No; I shall walk a little longer.” + </p> + <p> + “And I am quite forgiven?” + </p> + <p> + “I am thanking you very much,” he said, smiling directly into her blue + eyes. She lowered them, and vanished into the darkness of the passage. + </p> + <p> + The news of Minty's success was further corroborated by Sir Robert, who + later that evening called Bradley into the study. “Frank has been writing + from Nice that he has renewed his acquaintance with some old Californian + friends of yours—a Mr. and Miss Sharpe. Lady Canterbridge says that + they are well known in London to some of our friends, but I would like to + ask you something about them. Lady Mainwaring was on the point of inviting + them here when I received a letter from Mr. Sharpe asking for a BUSINESS + interview. Pray who is this Sharpe?” + </p> + <p> + “You say he writes for a BUSINESS interview?” asked Bradley. + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + Bradley hesitated for a moment and then said quietly, “Perhaps, then, I am + justified in a breach of confidence to him, in order to answer your + question. He is the man who has assumed all the liabilities of the Sierran + Land and Timber Company to enable the Bank to resume payment. But he did + it on the condition that you were never to know it. For the rest, he was a + blacksmith who made a fortune, as Lady Canterbridge will tell you.” + </p> + <p> + “How very odd—how kind, I mean. I should like to have been civil to + him on Frank's account alone.” + </p> + <p> + “I should see him on business and be civil to him afterwards.” Sir Robert + received the American's levity with his usual seriousness. + </p> + <p> + “No, they must come here for Christmas. His daughter is—?” + </p> + <p> + “Araminta Eulalie Sharpe,” said Bradley, in defiant memory of Lady + Canterbridge. + </p> + <p> + Sir Robert winced audibly. “I shall rely on you, my dear boy, to help me + make it pleasant for them,” he said. + </p> + <p> + Christmas came, but not Minty. It drew a large contingent from Oldenhurst + to the quaint old church, who came to view the green-wreathed monuments, + and walls spotted with crimson berries, as if with the blood of former + Oldenhurst warriors, and to impress the wondering villagers with the + ineffable goodness and bounty of the Creator towards the Lords of + Oldenhurst and their friends. Sir Robert, a little gouty, kept the house, + and Bradley, somewhat uneasy at the Sharpes' absence, but more distrait + with other thoughts, wandered listlessly in the long library. At the lower + angle it was embayed into the octagon space of a former tower, which was + furnished as a quaint recess for writing or study, pierced through its + enormous walls with a lance-shaped window, hidden by heavy curtains. He + was gazing abstractedly at the melancholy eyes of Sir Percival, looking + down from the dark panel opposite, when he heard the crisp rustle of a + skirt. Lady Canterbridge tightly and stiffly buttoned in black from her + long narrow boots to her slim, white-collared neck, stood beside him with + a prayer-book in her ungloved hand. Bradley colored quickly; the + penetrating incense of the Christmas boughs and branches that decked the + walls and ceilings, mingled with some indefinable intoxicating aura from + the woman at his side, confused his senses. He seemed to be losing himself + in some forgotten past coeval with the long, quaintly-lighted room, the + rich hangings, and the painted ancestor of this handsome woman. He + recovered himself with an effort, and said, + </p> + <p> + “You are going to church?” + </p> + <p> + “I may meet them coming home; it's all the same. You like HIM?” she said + abruptly, pointing to the portrait. “I thought you did not care for that + sort of man over there.” + </p> + <p> + “A man like that must have felt the impotence of his sacrifice before he + died, and that condoned everything,” said Bradley, thoughtfully. + </p> + <p> + “Then you don't think him a fool? Bob says it was a fair bargain for a + title and an office, and that by dying he escaped trial and the + confiscation of what he had.” + </p> + <p> + Bradley did not reply. + </p> + <p> + “I am disturbing your illusions again. Yet I rather like them. I think you + are quite capable of a sacrifice—perhaps you know what it is + already.” + </p> + <p> + He felt that she was looking at him; he felt equally that he could not + respond with a commonplace. He was silent. + </p> + <p> + “I have offended you again, Mr. Bradley,” she said. “Please be Christian, + and pardon me. You know this is a season of peace and goodwill.” She + raised her blue eyes at the same moment to the Christmas decorations on + the ceiling. They were standing before the parted drapery of the lance + window. Midway between the arched curtains hung a spray of mistletoe—the + conceit of a mischievous housemaid. Their eyes met it simultaneously. + </p> + <p> + Bradley had Lady Canterbridge's slim, white hand in his own. The next + moment voices were heard in the passage, and the door nearly opposite to + them opened deliberately. The idea of their apparent seclusion and half + compromising attitude flashed through the minds of both at the same time. + Lady Canterbridge stepped quickly backward, drawing Bradley with her, into + the embrasure of the window; the folds of the curtain swung together and + concealed them from view. + </p> + <p> + The door had been opened by the footman, ushering in a broad-shouldered + man, who was carrying a travelling-bag and an umbrella in his hand. + Dropping into an arm-chair before the curtain, he waved away the footman, + who, even now, mechanically repeated a previously vain attempt to relieve + the stranger of his luggage. + </p> + <p> + “You leave that 'ere grip sack where it is, young man, and tell Sir Robert + Mainwaring that Mr. Demander Sharpe, of Californy, wishes to see him—on + business—on BUSINESS, do ye' hear? You hang onter that sentence—on + BUSINESS! it's about ez much ez you kin carry, I reckon, and leave that + grip sack alone.” + </p> + <p> + From behind the curtain Bradley made a sudden movement to go forward; but + Lady Canterbridge—now quite pale but collected—restrained him + with a warning movement of her hand. Sir Robert's stick and halting step + were next heard along the passage, and he entered the room. His simple and + courteous greeting of the stranger was instantly followed by a renewed + attack upon the “grip sack,” and a renewed defence of it by the stranger. + </p> + <p> + “No, Sir Robert,” said the voice argumentatively, “this yer's a BUSINESS + interview, and until it's over—if YOU please—we'll remain ez + we air. I'm Demander Sharpe, of Californy, and I and my darter, Minty, + oncet had the pleasure of knowing your boy over thar, and of meeting him + agin the other day at Nice.” + </p> + <p> + “I think,” said Sir Robert's voice gently, “that these are not the only + claims you have upon me. I have only a day or two ago heard from Mr. + Bradley that I owe to your generous hands and your disinterested + liberality the saving of my California fortune.” + </p> + <p> + There was the momentary sound of a pushed-back chair, a stamping of feet, + and then Mr. Sharpe's voice rose high with the blacksmith's old querulous + aggrieved utterance. + </p> + <p> + “So it's that finikin', conceited Bradley agin—that's giv' me away! + Ef that man's all-fired belief in his being the Angel Gabriel and Dan'l + Webster rolled inter one don't beat anythin'! I suppose that high-flyin' + jay-bird kalkilated to put you and me and my gal and yer boy inter harness + for his four hoss chariot and he sittin' kam on the box drivin' us! Why + don't he tend to his own business, and look arter his own concerns—instead + o' leaving Jinny Bradley and Loo Macy dependent on Kings and Queens and + titled folks gen'rally, and he, Jim Bradley, philanderin' with another + man's wife—while that thar man is hard at work tryin' to make a + honest livin' fer his wife, buckin' agin faro an' the tiger gen'rally at + Monaco! Eh? And that man a-inter-meddlin' with me! Ef,” continued the + voice, dropped to a tone of hopeless moral conviction, “ef there's a man I + mor'aly despise—it's that finikin' Jim Bradley.” + </p> + <p> + “You quite misunderstand me, my dear sir,” said Sir Robert's hurried + voice; “he told me you had pledged him to secrecy, and he only revealed it + to explain why you wished to see me.” + </p> + <p> + There was a grunt of half-placated wrath from Sharpe, and then the voice + resumed, but more deliberately, “Well, to come back to business: you've + got a boy, Francis, and I've got a darter, Araminty. They've sorter taken + a shine to each other and they want to get married. Mind yer—wait a + moment!—it wasn't allus so. No, sir; when my gal Araminty first seed + your boy in Californy she was poor, and she didn't kalkilate to get inter + anybody's family unbeknownst or on sufferance. Then she got rich and you + got poor; and then—hold on a minit!—she allows, does my girl, + that there ain't any nearer chance o' their making a match than they were + afore, for she isn't goin' to hev it said that she married your son fur + the chance of some day becomin' Lady Mainwaring.” + </p> + <p> + “One moment, Mr. Sharpe,” said the voice of the Baronet, gravely: “I am + both flattered and pained by what I believe to be the kindly object of + your visit. Indeed, I may say I have gathered a suspicion of what might be + the sequel of this most unhappy acquaintance of my son and your daughter; + but I cannot believe that he has kept you in ignorance of his unfortunate + prospects and his still more unfortunate state of health.” + </p> + <p> + “When I told ye to hold on a minit,” continued the blacksmith's voice, + with a touch of querulousness in its accent, “that was jist wot I was + comin' to. I knowed part of it from my own pocket, she knowed the rest of + it from his lip and the doctors she interviewed. And then she says to me—sez + my girl Minty—Pop,' she sez, 'he's got nothing to live for now but + his title, and that he never may live to get, so that I think ye kin jist + go, Pop, and fairly and squarely, as a honest man, ask his father to let + me hev him.' Them's my darter's own words, Sir Robert, and when I tell yer + that she's got a million o' dollars to back them, ye'll know she means + business, every time.” + </p> + <p> + “Did Francis know that you were coming here?” + </p> + <p> + “Bless ye, no! he don't know that she would have him. Ef it kem to that, + he ain't even asked her! She wouldn't let him until she was sure of YOU.” + </p> + <p> + “Then you mean to say there is no engagement?” + </p> + <p> + “In course not. I reckoned to do the square thing first with ye.” + </p> + <p> + The halting step of the Baronet crossing the room was heard distinctly. He + had stopped beside Sharpe. “My dear Mr. Sharpe,” he said, in a troubled + voice, “I cannot permit this sacrifice. It is too—too great!” + </p> + <p> + “Then,” said Sharpe' s voice querulously, “I'm afraid we must do without + your permission. I didn't reckon to find a sort o' British Jim Bradley in + you. If YOU can't permit my darter to sacrifice herself by marryin' your + son, I can't permit her to sacrifice her love and him by NOT marryin' him. + So I reckon this yer interview is over.” + </p> + <p> + “I am afraid we are both old fools, Mr. Sharpe; but—we will talk + this over with Lady Mainwaring. Come—” There was evidently a slight + struggle near the chair over some inanimate object. But the next moment + the Baronet's voice rose, persuasively, “Really, I must insist upon + relieving you of your bag and umbrella.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, if you'll let me telegraph 'yes' to Minty, I don't care if yer do.” + </p> + <p> + When the room was quiet again, Lady Canterbridge and James Bradley + silently slipped from the curtain, and, without a word, separated at the + door. + </p> + <p> + There was a merry Christmas at Oldenhurst and at Nice. But whether Minty's + loving sacrifice was accepted or not, or whether she ever reigned as Lady + Mainwaring, or lived an untitled widow, I cannot say. But as Oldenhurst + still exists in all its pride and power, it is presumed that the peril + that threatened its fortunes was averted, and that if another heroine was + not found worthy of a frame in its picture-gallery, at least it had been + sustained as of old by devotion and renunciation. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Phyllis of the Sierras, by Bret Harte + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PHYLLIS OF THE SIERRAS *** + +***** This file should be named 2711-h.htm or 2711-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/1/2711/ + +Produced by Donald Lainson; David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Phyllis of the Sierras + +Author: Bret Harte + +Release Date: May 25, 2006 [EBook #2711] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PHYLLIS OF THE SIERRAS *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson + + + + + +A PHYLLIS OF THE SIERRAS + + +By Bret Harte + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +Where the great highway of the Sierras nears the summit, and the pines +begin to show sterile reaches of rock and waste in their drawn-up files, +there are signs of occasional departures from the main road, as if the +weary traveller had at times succumbed to the long ascent, and turned +aside for rest and breath again. The tired eyes of many a dusty +passenger on the old overland coach have gazed wistfully on those sylvan +openings, and imagined recesses of primeval shade and virgin wilderness +in their dim perspectives. Had he descended, however, and followed one +of these diverging paths, he would have come upon some rude wagon track, +or "logslide," leading from a clearing on the slope, or the ominous +saw-mill, half hidden in the forest it was slowly decimating. The +woodland hush might have been broken by the sound of water passing over +some unseen dam in the hollow, or the hiss of escaping steam and throb +of an invisible engine in the covert. + +Such, at least, was the experience of a young fellow of five-and-twenty, +who, knapsack on back and stick in hand, had turned aside from the +highway and entered the woods one pleasant afternoon in July. But he +was evidently a deliberate pedestrian, and not a recent deposit of +the proceeding stage-coach; and although his stout walking-shoes were +covered with dust, he had neither the habitual slouch and slovenliness +of the tramp, nor the hurried fatigue and growing negligence of an +involuntary wayfarer. His clothes, which were strong and serviceable, +were better fitted for their present usage than the ordinary garments +of the Californian travellers, which were too apt to be either above or +below their requirements. But perhaps the stranger's greatest claim to +originality was the absence of any weapon in his equipment. He carried +neither rifle nor gun in his hand, and his narrow leathern belt was +empty of either knife or revolver. + +A half-mile from the main road, which seemed to him to have dropped out +of sight the moment he had left it, he came upon a half-cleared area, +where the hastily-cut stumps of pines, of irregular height, bore an odd +resemblance to the broken columns of some vast and ruined temple. A few +fallen shafts, denuded of their bark and tessellated branches, sawn into +symmetrical cylinders, lay beside the stumps, and lent themselves to the +illusion. But the freshly-cut chips, so damp that they still clung in +layers to each other as they had fallen from the axe, and the stumps +themselves, still wet and viscous from their drained life-blood, were +redolent of an odor of youth and freshness. + +The young man seated himself on one of the logs and deeply inhaled the +sharp balsamic fragrance--albeit with a slight cough and a later hurried +respiration. This, and a certain drawn look about his upper lip, +seemed to indicate, in spite of his strength and color, some pulmonary +weakness. He, however, rose after a moment's rest with undiminished +energy and cheerfulness, readjusted his knapsack, and began to lightly +pick his way across the fallen timber. A few paces on, the muffled whir +of machinery became more audible, with the lazy, monotonous command +of "Gee thar," from some unseen ox-driver. Presently, the slow, +deliberately-swaying heads of a team of oxen emerged from the bushes, +followed by the clanking chain of the "skids" of sawn planks, which they +were ponderously dragging with that ostentatious submissiveness peculiar +to their species. They had nearly passed him when there was a sudden +hitch in the procession. From where he stood he could see that a +projecting plank had struck a pile of chips and become partly imbedded +in it. To run to the obstruction and, with a few dexterous strokes and +the leverage of his stout stick, dislodge the plank was the work not +only of the moment but of an evidently energetic hand. The teamster +looked back and merely nodded his appreciation, and with a "Gee up! Out +of that, now!" the skids moved on. + +"Much obliged, there!" said a hearty voice, as if supplementing the +teamster's imperfect acknowledgment. + +The stranger looked up. The voice came from the open, sashless, +shutterless window of a rude building--a mere shell of boards and beams +half hidden in the still leafy covert before him. He had completely +overlooked it in his approach, even as he had ignored the nearer +throbbing of the machinery, which was so violent as to impart a decided +tremor to the slight edifice, and to shake the speaker so strongly that +he was obliged while speaking to steady himself by the sashless frame +of the window at which he stood. He had a face of good-natured and alert +intelligence, a master's independence and authority of manner, in spite +of his blue jean overalls and flannel shirt. + +"Don't mention it," said the stranger, smiling with equal but more +deliberate good-humor. Then, seeing that his interlocutor still +lingered a hospitable moment in spite of his quick eyes and the jarring +impatience of the machinery, he added hesitatingly, "I fancy I've +wandered off the track a bit. Do you know a Mr. Bradley--somewhere +here?" + +The stranger's hesitation seemed to be more from some habitual +conscientiousness of statement than awkwardness. The man in the window +replied, "I'm Bradley." + +"Ah! Thank you: I've a letter for you--somewhere. Here it is." He +produced a note from his breast-pocket. Bradley stooped to a sitting +posture in the window. "Pitch it up." It was thrown and caught cleverly. +Bradley opened it, read it hastily, smiled and nodded, glanced behind +him as if to implore further delay from the impatient machinery, leaned +perilously from the window, and said,-- + +"Look here! Do you see that silver-fir straight ahead?" + +"Yes." + +"A little to the left there's a trail. Follow it and skirt along the +edge of the canyon until you see my house. Ask for my wife--that's Mrs. +Bradley--and give her your letter. Stop!" He drew a carpenter's pencil +from his pocket, scrawled two or three words across the open sheet +and tossed it back to the stranger. "See you at tea! Excuse me--Mr. +Mainwaring--we're short-handed--and--the engine--" But here he +disappeared suddenly. + +Without glancing at the note again, the stranger quietly replaced it +in his pocket, and struck out across the fallen trunks towards the +silver-fir. He quickly found the trail indicated by Bradley, although it +was faint and apparently worn by a single pair of feet as a shorter and +private cut from some more travelled path. It was well for the stranger +that he had a keen eye or he would have lost it; it was equally +fortunate that he had a mountaineering instinct, for a sudden profound +deepening of the blue mist seen dimly through the leaves before him +caused him to slacken his steps. The trail bent abruptly to the right; +a gulf fully two thousand feet deep was at his feet! It was the Great +Canyon. + +At the first glance it seemed so narrow that a rifle-shot could have +crossed its tranquil depths; but a second look at the comparative size +of the trees on the opposite mountain convinced him of his error. A +nearer survey of the abyss also showed him that instead of its walls +being perpendicular they were made of successive ledges or terraces to +the valley below. Yet the air was so still, and the outlines so clearly +cut, that they might have been only the reflections of the mountains +around him cast upon the placid mirror of a lake. The spectacle arrested +him, as it arrested all men, by some occult power beyond the mere +attraction of beauty or magnitude; even the teamster never passed +it without the tribute of a stone or broken twig tossed into its +immeasurable profundity. + +Reluctantly leaving the spot, the stranger turned with the trail that +now began to skirt its edge. This was no easy matter, as the undergrowth +was very thick, and the foliage dense to the perilous brink of the +precipice. He walked on, however, wondering why Bradley had chosen so +circuitous and dangerous a route to his house, which naturally would +be some distance back from the canyon. At the end of ten minutes' +struggling through the "brush," the trail became vague, and, to all +appearances, ended. Had he arrived? The thicket was as dense as before; +through the interstices of leaf and spray he could see the blue void of +the canyon at his side, and he even fancied that the foliage ahead of +him was more symmetrical and less irregular, and was touched here and +there with faint bits of color. To complete his utter mystification, +a woman's voice, very fresh, very youthful, and by no means unmusical, +rose apparently from the circumambient air. He looked hurriedly to the +right and left, and even hopelessly into the trees above him. + +"Yes," said the voice, as if renewing a suspended conversation, "it +was too funny for anything. There were the two Missouri girls from +Skinner's, with their auburn hair ringleted, my dear, like the old +'Books of Beauty'--in white frocks and sashes of an unripe greenish +yellow, that puckered up your mouth like persimmons. One of them was +speechless from good behavior, and the other--well! the other was +so energetic she called out the figures before the fiddler did, and +shrieked to my vis-a-vis to dance up to the entire stranger--meaning ME, +if you please." + +The voice appeared to come from the foliage that overhung the canyon, +and the stranger even fancied he could detect through the shimmering +leafy veil something that moved monotonously to and fro. Mystified and +impatient, he made a hurried stride forward, his foot struck a wooden +step, and the next moment the mystery was made clear. He had almost +stumbled upon the end of a long veranda that projected over the abyss +before a low, modern dwelling, till then invisible, nestling on its +very brink. The symmetrically-trimmed foliage he had noticed were the +luxuriant Madeira vines that hid the rude pillars of the veranda; the +moving object was a rocking-chair, with its back towards the intruder, +that disclosed only the brown hair above, and the white skirts and small +slippered feet below, of a seated female figure. In the mean time, a +second voice from the interior of the house had replied to the figure in +the chair, who was evidently the first speaker:-- + +"It must have been very funny; but as long as Jim is always bringing +somebody over from the mill, I don't see how I can go to those places. +You were lucky, my dear, to escape from the new Division Superintendent +last night; he was insufferable to Jim with his talk of his friend the +San Francisco millionaire, and to me with his cheap society airs. I do +hate a provincial fine gentleman." + +The situation was becoming embarrassing to the intruder. At the +apparition of the woman, the unaffected and simple directness he had +previously shown in his equally abrupt contact with Bradley had fled +utterly; confused by the awkwardness of his arrival, and shocked at the +idea of overhearing a private conversation, he stepped hurriedly on the +veranda. + +"Well? go on!" said the second voice impatiently. "Well, who else was +there? WHAT did you say? I don't hear you. What's the matter?" + +The seated figure had risen from her chair, and turned a young and +pretty face somewhat superciliously towards the stranger, as she said in +a low tone to her unseen auditor, "Hush! there is somebody here." + +The young man came forward with an awkwardness that was more boyish than +rustic. His embarrassment was not lessened by the simultaneous entrance +from the open door of a second woman, apparently as young as and +prettier than the first. + +"I trust you'll excuse me for--for--being so wretchedly stupid," he +stammered, "but I really thought, you know, that--that--I was following +the trail to--to--the front of the house, when I stumbled in--in here." + +Long before he had finished, both women, by some simple feminine +intuition, were relieved and even prepossessed by his voice and manner. +They smiled graciously. The later-comer pointed to the empty chair. But +with his habit of pertinacious conscientiousness the stranger continued, +"It was regularly stupid, wasn't it?--and I ought to have known better. +I should have turned back and gone away when I found out what an ass I +was likely to be, but I was--afraid--you know, of alarming you by the +noise." + +"Won't you sit down?" said the second lady, pleasantly. + +"Oh, thanks! I've a letter here--I"--he transferred his stick and hat +to his left hand as he felt in his breast-pocket with his right. But the +action was so awkward that the stick dropped on the veranda. Both women +made a movement to restore it to its embarrassed owner, who, however, +quickly anticipated them. "Pray don't mind it," he continued, with +accelerated breath and heightened color. "Ah, here's the letter!" He +produced the note Bradley had returned to him. "It's mine, in +fact--that is, I brought it to Mr. Bradley. He said I was to give it +to--to--to--Mrs. Bradley." He paused, glancing embarrassedly from the +one to the other. + +"I'm Mrs. Bradley," said the prettiest one, with a laugh. He handed her +the letter. It ran as follows:-- + +"DEAR BRADLEY--Put Mr. Mainwaring through as far as he wants to go, or +hang him up at The Lookout, just as he likes. The Bank's behind him, and +his hat's chalked all over the Road; but he don't care much about being +on velvet. That ain't his style--and you'll like him. He's somebody's +son in England. B." + +Mrs. Bradley glanced simply at the first sentence. "Pray sit down, Mr. +Mainwaring," she said gently; "or, rather, let me first introduce my +cousin--Miss Macy." + +"Thanks," said Mainwaring, with a bow to Miss Macy, "but +I--I--I--think," he added conscientiously, "you did not notice that your +husband had written something across the paper." + +Mrs. Bradley smiled, and glanced at her husband's indorsement--"All +right. Wade in." "It's nothing but Jim's slang," she said, with a laugh +and a slightly heightened color. "He ought not to have sent you by that +short cut; it's a bother, and even dangerous for a stranger. If you had +come directly to US by the road, without making your first call at +the mill," she added, with a touch of coquetry, "you would have had a +pleasanter walk, and seen US sooner. I suppose, however, you got off the +stage at the mill?" + +"I was not on the coach," said Mainwaring, unfastening the strap of his +knapsack. "I walked over from Lone Pine Flat." + +"Walked!" echoed both women in simultaneous astonishment. + +"Yes," returned Mainwaring simply, laying aside his burden and taking +the proffered seat. "It's a very fine bit of country." + +"Why, it's fifteen miles," said Mrs. Bradley, glancing horror-stricken +at her cousin. "How dreadful! And to think Jim could have sent you a +horse to Lone Pine. Why, you must be dead!" + +"Thanks, I'm all right! I rather enjoyed it, you know." + +"But," said Miss Macy, glancing wonderingly at his knapsack, "you must +want something, a change--or some refreshment--after fifteen miles." + +"Pray don't disturb yourself," said Mainwaring, rising hastily, but not +quickly enough to prevent the young girl from slipping past him into the +house, whence she rapidly returned with a decanter and glasses. + +"Perhaps Mr. Mainwaring would prefer to go into Jim's room and wash his +hands and put on a pair of slippers?" said Mrs. Bradley, with gentle +concern. + +"Thanks, no. I really am not tired. I sent some luggage yesterday by the +coach to the Summit Hotel," he said, observing the women's eyes still +fixed upon his knapsack. "I dare say I can get them if I want them. +I've got a change here," he continued, lifting the knapsack as if with a +sudden sense of its incongruity with its surroundings, and depositing it +on the end of the veranda. + +"Do let it remain where it is," said Mrs. Bradley, greatly amused, "and +pray sit still and take some refreshment. You'll make yourself ill +after your exertions," she added, with a charming assumption of matronly +solicitude. + +"But I'm not at all deserving of your sympathy," said Mainwaring, with +a laugh. "I'm awfully fond of walking, and my usual constitutional isn't +much under this." + +"Perhaps you were stronger than you are now," said Mrs. Bradley, gazing +at him with a frank curiosity that, however, brought a faint deepening +of color to his cheek. + +"I dare say you're right," he said suddenly, with an apologetic smile. +"I quite forgot that I'm a sort of an invalid, you know, travelling +for my health. I'm not very strong here," he added, lightly tapping +his chest, that now, relieved of the bands of his knapsack, appeared +somewhat thin and hollow in spite of his broad shoulders. His voice, +too, had become less clear and distinct. + +Mrs. Bradley, who was still watching him, here rose potentially. "You +ought to take more care of yourself," she said. "You should begin by +eating this biscuit, drinking that glass of whiskey, and making yourself +more comfortable in Jim's room until we can get the spare room fixed a +little." + +"But I am not to be sent to bed--am I?" asked Mainwaring, in half-real, +half-amused consternation. + +"I'm not so sure of that," said Mrs. Bradley, with playful precision. +"But for the present we'll let you off with a good wash and a nap +afterwards in that rocking-chair, while my cousin and I make some +little domestic preparations. You see," she added with a certain proud +humility, "we've got only one servant--a Chinaman, and there are many +things we can't leave to him." + +The color again rose in Mainwaring's cheek, but he had tact enough to +reflect that any protest or hesitation on his part at that moment would +only increase the difficulties of his gentle entertainers. He allowed +himself to be ushered into the house by Mrs. Bradley, and shown to her +husband's room, without perceiving that Miss Macy had availed herself of +his absence to run to the end of the veranda, mischievously try to +lift the discarded knapsack to her own pretty shoulder, but, failing, +heroically stagger with it into the passage and softly deposit it at his +door. This done, she pantingly rejoined her cousin in the kitchen. + +"Well," said Mrs. Bradley, emphatically. "DID you ever? Walking fifteen +miles for pleasure--and with such lungs!" + +"And that knapsack!" added Louise Macy, pointing to the mark in her +little palm where the strap had imbedded itself in the soft flesh. + +"He's nice, though; isn't he?" said Mrs. Bradley, tentatively. + +"Yes," said Miss Macy, "he isn't, certainly, one of those provincial +fine gentlemen you object to. But DID you see his shoes? I suppose they +make the miles go quickly, or seem to measure less by comparison." + +"They're probably more serviceable than those high-heeled things that +Captain Greyson hops about in." + +"But the Captain always rides--and rides very well--you know," said +Louise, reflectively. There was a moment's pause. + +"I suppose Jim will tell us all about him," said Mrs. Bradley, +dismissing the subject, as she turned her sleeves back over her white +arms, preparatory to grappling certain culinary difficulties. + +"Jim," observed Miss Macy, shortly, "in my opinion, knows nothing more +than his note says. That's like Jim." + +"There's nothing more to know, really," said Mrs. Bradley, with a +superior air. "He's undoubtedly the son of some Englishman of fortune, +sent out here for his health." + +"Hush!" + +Miss Macy had heard a step in the passage. It halted at last, half +irresolutely, before the open door of the kitchen, and the stranger +appeared with an embarrassed air. + +But in his brief absence he seemed to have completely groomed himself, +and stood there, the impersonation of close-cropped, clean, and +wholesome English young manhood. The two women appreciated it with +cat-like fastidiousness. + +"I beg your pardon; but really you're going to let a fellow do something +for you," he said, "just to keep him from looking like a fool. I really +can do no end of things, you know, if you'll try me. I've done some +camping-out, and can cook as well as the next man." + +The two women made a movement of smiling remonstrance, half coquettish, +and half superior, until Mrs. Bradley, becoming conscious of her bare +arms and the stranger's wandering eyes, colored faintly, and said with +more decision:-- + +"Certainly not. You'd only be in the way. Besides, you need rest more +than we do. Put yourself in the rocking-chair in the veranda, and go to +sleep until Mr. Bradley comes." + +Mainwaring saw that she was serious, and withdrew, a little ashamed at +his familiarity into which his boyishness had betrayed him. But he had +scarcely seated himself in the rocking-chair before Miss Macy appeared, +carrying with both hands a large tin basin of unshelled peas. + +"There," she said pantingly, placing her burden in his lap, "if you +really want to help, there's something to do that isn't very fatiguing. +You may shell these peas." + +"SHELL them--I beg pardon, but how?" he asked, with smiling earnestness. + +"How? Why, I'll show you--look." + +She frankly stepped beside him, so close that her full-skirted dress +half encompassed him and the basin in a delicious confusion, and, +leaning over his lap, with her left hand picked up a pea-cod, which, +with a single movement of her charming little right thumb, she broke at +the end, and stripped the green shallow of its tiny treasures. + +He watched her with smiling eyes; her own, looking down on him, were +very bright and luminous. "There; that's easy enough," she said, and +turned away. + +"But--one moment, Miss--Miss--?" + +"Macy," said louise. + +"Where am I to put the shells?" + +"Oh! throw them down there--there's room enough." + +She was pointing to the canyon below. The veranda actually projected +over its brink, and seemed to hang in mid air above it. Mainwaring +almost mechanically threw his arm out to catch the incautious girl, who +had stepped heedlessly to its extreme edge. + +"How odd! Don't you find it rather dangerous here?" he could not help +saying. "I mean--you might have had a railing that wouldn't intercept +the view and yet be safe?" + +"It's a fancy of Mr. Bradley's," returned the young girl carelessly. +"It's all like this. The house was built on a ledge against the side of +the precipice, and the road suddenly drops down to it." + +"It's tremendously pretty, all the same, you know," said the young man +thoughtfully, gazing, however, at the girl's rounded chin above him. + +"Yes," she replied curtly. "But this isn't working. I must go back to +Jenny. You can shell the peas until Mr. Bradley comes home. He won't be +long." + +She turned away, and re-entered the house. Without knowing why, he +thought her withdrawal abrupt, and he was again feeling his ready color +rise with the suspicion of either having been betrayed by the young +girl's innocent fearlessness into some unpardonable familiarity, which +she had quietly resented, or of feeling an ease and freedom in the +company of these two women that were inconsistent with respect, and +should be restrained. + +He, however, began to apply himself to the task given to him with his +usual conscientiousness of duty, and presently acquired a certain manual +dexterity in the operation. It was "good fun" to throw the cast-off +husks into the mighty unfathomable void before him, and watch them +linger with suspended gravity in mid air for a moment--apparently +motionless--until they either lost themselves, a mere vanishing black +spot in the thin ether, or slid suddenly at a sharp angle into unknown +shadow. How deuced odd for him to be sitting here in this fashion! It +would be something to talk of hereafter, and yet,--he stopped--it was +not at all in the line of that characteristic adventure, uncivilized +novelty, and barbarous freedom which for the last month he had sought +and experienced. It was not at all like his meeting with the grizzly +last week while wandering in a lonely canyon; not a bit in the line of +his chance acquaintance with that notorious ruffian, Spanish Jack, or +his witnessing with his own eyes that actual lynching affair at Angels. +No! Nor was it at all characteristic, according to his previous ideas of +frontier rural seclusion--as for instance the Pike County cabin of the +family where he stayed one night, and where the handsome daughter asked +him what his Christian name was. No! These two young women were very +unlike her; they seemed really quite the equals of his family and +friends in England,--perhaps more attractive,--and yet, yes, it was +this very attractiveness that alarmed his inbred social conservatism +regarding women. With a man it was very different; that alert, active, +intelligent husband, instinct with the throbbing life of his saw-mill, +creator and worker in one, challenged his unqualified trust and +admiration. + +He had become conscious for the last minute or two of thinking rapidly +and becoming feverishly excited; of breathing with greater difficulty, +and a renewed tendency to cough. The tendency increased until he +instinctively put aside the pan from his lap and half rose. But even +that slight exertion brought on an accession of coughing. He put his +handkerchief to his lips, partly to keep the sound from disturbing the +women in the kitchen, partly because of a certain significant taste +in his mouth which he unpleasantly remembered. When he removed the +handkerchief it was, as he expected, spotted with blood. He turned +quickly and re-entered the house softly, regaining the bedroom without +attracting attention. An increasing faintness here obliged him to lie +down on the bed until it should pass. + +Everything was quiet. He hoped they would not discover his absence from +the veranda until he was better; it was deucedly awkward that he should +have had this attack just now--and after he had made so light of his +previous exertions. They would think him an effeminate fraud, these two +bright, active women and that alert, energetic man. A faint color came +into his cheek at the idea, and an uneasy sense that he had been in some +way foolishly imprudent about his health. Again, they might be alarmed +at missing him from the veranda; perhaps he had better have remained +there; perhaps he ought to tell them that he had concluded to take their +advice and lie down. He tried to rise, but the deep blue chasm before +the window seemed to be swelling up to meet him, the bed slowly sinking +into its oblivious profundity. He knew no more. + +He came to with the smell and taste of some powerful volatile spirit, +and the vague vision of Mr. Bradley still standing at the window of +the mill and vibrating with the machinery; this changed presently to a +pleasant lassitude and lazy curiosity as he perceived Mr. Bradley smile +and apparently slip from the window of the mill to his bedside. "You're +all right now," said Bradley, cheerfully. + +He was feeling Mainwaring's pulse. Had he really been ill and was +Bradley a doctor? + +Bradley evidently saw what was passing in his mind. "Don't be alarmed," +he said gayly. "I'm not a doctor, but I practise a little medicine and +surgery on account of the men at the mill, and accidents, you know. +You're all right now; you've lost a little blood: but in a couple of +weeks in this air we'll have that tubercle healed, and you'll be as +right as a trivet." + +"In a couple of weeks!" echoed Mainwaring, in faint astonishment. "Why, +I leave here to-morrow." + +"You'll do nothing of the kind" said Mrs. Bradley, with smiling +peremptoriness, suddenly slipping out from behind her husband. +"Everything is all perfectly arranged. Jim has sent off messengers to +your friends, so that if you can't come to them, they can come to you. +You see you can't help yourself! If you WILL walk fifteen miles with +such lungs, and then frighten people to death, you must abide by the +consequences." + +"You see the old lady has fixed you," said Bradley, smiling; "and she's +the master here. Come, Mainwaring, you can send any other message you +like, and have who and what you want here; but HERE you must stop for a +while." + +"But did I frighten you really?" stammered Mainwaring, faintly, to Mrs. +Bradley. + +"Frighten us!" said Mrs. Bradley. "Well, look there!" + +She pointed to the window, which commanded a view of the veranda. Miss +Macy had dropped into the vacant chair, with her little feet stretched +out before her, her cheeks burning with heat and fire, her eyes partly +closed, her straw hat hanging by a ribbon round her neck, her brown +hair clinging to her ears and forehead in damp tendrils, and an enormous +palm-leaf fan in each hand violently playing upon this charming picture +of exhaustion and abandonment. + +"She came tearing down to the mill, bare-backed on our half-broken +mustang, about half an hour ago, to call me 'to help you,'" explained +Bradley. "Heaven knows how she managed to do it!" + + + + +CHAPER II. + + +The medication of the woods was not overestimated by Bradley. There was +surely some occult healing property in that vast reservoir of balmy and +resinous odors over which The Lookout beetled and clung, and from which +at times the pure exhalations of the terraced valley seemed to rise. +Under its remedial influence and a conscientious adherence to the rules +of absolute rest and repose laid down for him, Mainwaring had no return +of the hemorrhage. The nearest professional medical authority, hastily +summoned, saw no reason for changing or for supplementing Bradley's +intelligent and simple treatment, although astounded that the patient +had been under no more radical or systematic cure than travel and +exercise. The women especially were amazed that Mainwaring had taken +"nothing for it," in their habitual experience of an unfettered +pill-and-elixir-consuming democracy. In their knowledge of the thousand +"panaceas" that filled the shelves of the general store, this singular +abstention of their guest seemed to indicate a national peculiarity. + +His bed was moved beside the low window, from which he could not only +view the veranda but converse at times with its occupants, and even +listen to the book which Miss Macy, seated without, read aloud to him. +In the evening Bradley would linger by his couch until late, beguiling +the tedium of his convalescence with characteristic stories and +information which he thought might please the invalid. For Mainwaring, +who had been early struck with Bradley's ready and cultivated +intelligence, ended by shyly avoiding the discussion of more serious +topics, partly because Bradley impressed him with a suspicion of his +own inferiority, and partly because Mainwaring questioned the taste of +Bradley's apparent exhibition of his manifest superiority. He learned +accidentally that this mill-owner and backwoodsman was a college-bred +man; but the practical application of that education to the ordinary +affairs of life was new to the young Englishman's traditions, and grated +a little harshly on his feelings. He would have been quite content if +Bradley had, like himself and fellows he knew, undervalued his training, +and kept his gifts conservatively impractical. The knowledge also that +his host's education naturally came from some provincial institution +unlike Oxford and Cambridge may have unconsciously affected his general +estimate. I say unconsciously, for his strict conscientiousness would +have rejected any such formal proposition. + +Another trifle annoyed him. He could not help noticing also that +although Bradley's manner and sympathy were confidential and almost +brotherly, he never made any allusion to Mainwaring's own family or +connections, and, in fact, gave no indication of what he believed was +the national curiosity in regard to strangers. Somewhat embarrassed by +this indifference, Mainwaring made the occasion of writing some letters +home an opportunity for laughingly alluding to the fact that he had made +his mother and his sisters fully aware of the great debt they owed the +household of The Lookout. + +"They'll probably all send you a round robin of thanks, except, perhaps, +my next brother, Bob." + +Bradley contented himself with a gesture of general deprecation, and did +not ask WHY Mainwaring's young brother should contemplate his death with +satisfaction. Nevertheless, some time afterwards Miss Macy remarked +that it seemed hard that the happiness of one member of a family should +depend upon a calamity to another. "As for instance?" asked Mainwaring, +who had already forgotten the circumstance. "Why, if you had died and +your younger brother succeeded to the baronetcy, and become Sir Robert +Mainwaring," responded Miss Macy, with precision. This was the first and +only allusion to his family and prospective rank. On the other hand, +he had--through naive and boyish inquiries, which seemed to amuse his +entertainers--acquired, as he believed, a full knowledge of the history +and antecedents of the Bradley household. He knew how Bradley had +brought his young wife and her cousin to California and abandoned a +lucrative law practice in San Francisco to take possession of this +mountain mill and woodland, which he had acquired through some +professional service. + +"Then you are a barrister really?" said Mainwaring, gravely. + +Bradley laughed. "I'm afraid I've had more practice--though not as +lucrative a one--as surgeon or doctor." + +"But you're regularly on the rolls, you know; you're entered as +Counsel, and all that sort of thing?" continued Mainwaring, with great +seriousness. + +"Well, yes," replied Bradley, much amused. "I'm afraid I must plead +guilty to that." + +"It's not a bad sort of thing," said Mainwaring, naively, ignoring +Bradley's amusement. "I've got a cousin who's gone in for the law. Got +out of the army to do it--too. He's a sharp fellow." + +"Then you DO allow a man to try many trades--over there," said Miss +Macy, demurely. + +"Yes, sometimes," said Mainwaring, graciously, but by no means certain +that the case was at all analogous. + +Nevertheless, as if relieved of certain doubts of the conventional +quality of his host's attainments, he now gave himself up to a very +hearty and honest admiration of Bradley. "You know it's awfully kind of +him to talk to a fellow like me who just pulled through, and never got +any prizes at Oxford, and don't understand the half of these things," he +remarked confidentially to Mrs. Bradley. "He knows more about the things +we used to go in for at Oxford than lots of our men, and he's never been +there. He's uncommonly clever." + +"Jim was always very brilliant," returned Mrs. Bradley, indifferently, +and with more than even conventionally polite wifely deprecation; "I +wish he were more practical." + +"Practical! Oh, I say, Mrs. Bradley! Why, a fellow that can go in among +a lot of workmen and tell them just what to do--an all-round chap +that can be independent of his valet, his doctor, and his--banker! By +Jove--THAT'S practical!" + +"I mean," said Mrs. Bradley, coldly, "that there are some things that +a gentleman ought not to be practical about nor independent of. Mr. +Bradley would have done better to have used his talents in some more +legitimate and established way." + +Mainwaring looked at her in genuine surprise. To his inexperienced +observation Bradley's intelligent energy and, above all, his +originality, ought to have been priceless in the eyes of his wife--the +American female of his species. He felt that slight shock which most +loyal or logical men feel when first brought face to face with the easy +disloyalty and incomprehensible logic of the feminine affections. Here +was a fellow, by Jove, that any woman ought to be proud of, and--and--he +stopped blankly. He wondered if Miss Macy sympathized with her cousin. + +Howbeit, this did not affect the charm of their idyllic life at The +Lookout. The precipice over which they hung was as charming as ever +in its poetic illusions of space and depth and color; the isolation of +their comfortable existence in the tasteful yet audacious habitation, +the pleasant routine of daily tasks and amusements, all tended to make +the enforced quiet and inaction of his convalescence a lazy recreation. +He was really improving; more than that, he was conscious of a certain +satisfaction in this passive observation of novelty that was healthier +and perhaps TRUER than his previous passion for adventure and that +febrile desire for change and excitement which he now felt was a part +of his disease. Nor were incident and variety entirely absent from this +tranquil experience. He was one day astonished at being presented by +Bradley with copies of the latest English newspapers, procured from +Sacramento, and he equally astonished his host, after profusely thanking +him, by only listlessly glancing at their columns. He estopped a +proposed visit from one of his influential countrymen; in the absence +of his fair entertainers at their domestic duties, he extracted infinite +satisfaction from Foo-Yup, the Chinese servant, who was particularly +detached for his service. From his invalid coign of vantage at the +window he was observant of all that passed upon the veranda, that +al-fresco audience-room of The Lookout, and he was good-humoredly +conscious that a great many eccentric and peculiar visitors were +invariably dragged thither by Miss Macy, and goaded into characteristic +exhibition within sight and hearing of her guest, with a too evident +view, under the ostentatious excuse of extending his knowledge of +national character or mischievously shocking him. + +"When you are strong enough to stand Captain Gashweiler's opinions of +the Established Church and Chinamen," said Miss Macy, after one of these +revelations, "I'll get Jim to bring him here, for really he swears +so outrageously that even in the broadest interests of international +understanding and good-will neither Mrs. Bradley nor myself could be +present." + +On another occasion she provokingly lingered before his window for a +moment with a rifle slung jauntily over her shoulder. "If you hear a +shot or two don't excite yourself, and believe we're having a lynching +case in the woods. It will be only me. There's some creature--confess, +you expected me to say 'critter'--hanging round the barn. It may be a +bear. Good-by." She missed the creature,--which happened to be really a +bear,--much to Mainwaring's illogical satisfaction. "I wonder why," he +reflected, with vague uneasiness, "she doesn't leave all that sort of +thing to girls like that tow-headed girl at the blacksmith's." + +It chanced, however, that this blacksmith's tow-headed daughter, who, it +may be incidentally remarked, had the additional eccentricities of large +black eyes and large white teeth, came to the fore in quite another +fashion. Shortly after this, Mainwaring being able to leave his room and +join the family board, Mrs. Bradley found it necessary to enlarge +her domestic service, and arranged with her nearest neighbor, the +blacksmith, to allow his daughter to come to The Lookout for a few +days to "do the chores" and assist in the housekeeping, as she had on +previous occasions. The day of her advent Bradley entered Mainwaring's +room, and, closing the door mysteriously, fixed his blue eyes, kindling +with mischief, on the young Englishman. + +"You are aware, my dear boy," he began with affected gravity, "that you +are now living in a land of liberty, where mere artificial distinctions +are not known, and where Freedom from her mountain heights generally +levels all social positions. I think you have graciously admitted that +fact." + +"I know I've been taking a tremendous lot of freedom with you and yours, +old man, and it's a deuced shame," interrupted Mainwaring, with a faint +smile. + +"And that nowhere," continued Bradley, with immovable features, "does +equality exist as perfectly as above yonder unfathomable abyss, where +you have also, doubtless, observed the American eagle proudly soars and +screams defiance." + +"Then that was the fellow that kept me awake this morning, and made me +wonder if I was strong enough to hold a gun again." + +"That wouldn't have settled the matter," continued Bradley, +imperturbably. "The case is simply this: Miss Minty Sharpe, that +blacksmith's daughter, has once or twice consented, for a slight +emolument, to assist in our domestic service for a day or two, and she +comes back again to-day. Now, under the aegis of that noble bird whom +your national instincts tempt you to destroy, she has on all previous +occasions taken her meals with us, at the same table, on terms of +perfect equality. She will naturally expect to do the same now. Mrs. +Bradley thought it proper, therefore, to warn you, that, in case your +health was not quite equal to this democratic simplicity, you could +still dine in your room." + +"It would be great fun--if Miss Sharpe won't object to my presence." + +"But it must not be 'great fun,'" returned Bradley, more seriously; "for +Miss Minty's perception of humor is probably as keen as yours, and she +would be quick to notice it. And, so far from having any objection +to you, I am inclined to think that we owe her consent to come to her +desire of making your acquaintance." + +"She will find my conduct most exemplary," said Mainwaring, earnestly. + +"Let us hope so," concluded Bradley, with unabated gravity. "And, now +that you have consented, let me add from my own experience that Miss +Minty's lemon-pies alone are worthy of any concession." + +The dinner-hour came. Mainwaring, a little pale and interesting, leaning +on the arm of Bradley, crossed the hall, and for the first time entered +the dining-room of the house where he had lodged for three weeks. It +was a bright, cheerful apartment, giving upon the laurels of the rocky +hillside, and permeated, like the rest of the house, with the wholesome +spice of the valley--an odor that, in its pure desiccating property, +seemed to obliterate all flavor of alien human habitation, and even to +dominate and etherealize the appetizing smell of the viands before +them. The bare, shining, planed, boarded walls appeared to resent any +decoration that might have savored of dust, decay, or moisture. The four +large windows and long, open door, set in scanty strips of the plainest +spotless muslin, framed in themselves pictures of woods and rock and sky +of limitless depth, color, and distance, that made all other adornment +impertinent. Nature, invading the room at every opening, had banished +Art from those neutral walls. + +"It's like a picnic, with comfort," said Mainwaring, glancing round him +with boyish appreciation. Miss Minty was not yet there; the Chinaman +was alone in attendance. Mainwaring could not help whispering, half +mischievously, to Louise, "You draw the line at Chinamen, I suppose?" + +"WE don't, but HE does," answered the young girl. "He considers us his +social inferiors. But--hush!" + +Minty Sharpe had just entered the room, and was advancing with smiling +confidence towards the table. Mainwaring was a little startled; he had +seen Minty in a holland sun-bonnet and turned up skirt crossing +the veranda, only a moment before; in the brief instant between the +dishing-up of dinner and its actual announcement she had managed to +change her dress, put on a clean collar, cuffs, and a large jet brooch, +and apply some odorous unguent to her rebellious hair. Her face, +guiltless of powder or cold cream, was still shining with the healthy +perspiration of her last labors as she promptly took the vacant chair +beside Mainwaring. + +"Don't mind me, folks," she said cheerfully, resting her plump elbow on +the table, and addressing the company generally, but gazing with frank +curiosity into the face of the young man at her side. "It was a keen +jump, I tell yer, to get out of my old duds inter these, and look +decent inside o' five minutes. But I reckon I ain't kept yer waitin' +long--least of all this yer sick stranger. But you're looking pearter +than you did. You're wonderin' like ez not where I ever saw ye before?" +she continued, laughing. "Well, I'll tell you. Last week! I'd kem over +yer on a chance of seein' Jenny Bradley, and while I was meanderin' down +the veranda I saw you lyin' back in your chair by the window drowned +in sleep, like a baby. Lordy! I mout hev won a pair o' gloves, but I +reckoned you were Loo's game, and not mine." + +The slightly constrained laugh which went round the table after Miss +Minty's speech was due quite as much to the faint flush that had +accented Mainwaring's own smile as to the embarrassing remark itself. +Mrs. Bradley and Miss Macy exchanged rapid glances. Bradley, who alone +retained his composure, with a slight flicker of amusement in the corner +of his eye and nostril, said quickly: "You see, Mainwaring, how nature +stands ready to help your convalescence at every turn. If Miss Minty +had only followed up her healing opportunity, your cure would have been +complete." + +"Ye mout hev left some o' that pretty talk for HIM to say," said Minty, +taking up her knife and fork with a slight shrug, "and you needn't call +me MISS Minty either, jest because there's kempeny present." + +"I hope you won't look upon me as company, Minty, or I shall be obliged +to call you 'Miss' too," said Mainwaring, unexpectedly regaining his +usual frankness. + +Bradley's face brightened; Miss Minty raised her black eyes from her +plate with still broader appreciation. + +"There's nothin' mean about that," she said, showing her white teeth. +"Well, what's YOUR first name?" + +"Not as pretty as yours, I'm afraid. It's Frank." + +"No it ain't, it's Francis! You reckon to be Sir Francis some day," she +said gravely. "You can't play any Frank off on me. You wouldn't do it on +HER," she added, indicating Louise with her elbow. + +A momentous silence followed. The particular form that Minty's vulgarity +had taken had not been anticipated by the two other women. They had, +not unreasonably, expected some original audacity or gaucherie from the +blacksmith's daughter, which might astonish yet amuse their guest, and +condone for the situation forced upon them. But they were not prepared +for a playfulness that involved themselves in a ridiculous indiscretion. +Mrs. Bradley's eyes sought her husband's meaningly; Louise's pretty +mouth hardened. Luckily the cheerful cause of it suddenly jumped up +from the table, and saying that the stranger was starving, insisted upon +bringing a dish from the other side and helping him herself plentifully. +Mainwaring rose gallantly to take the dish from her hand, a slight +scuffle ensued which ended in the young man being forced down in his +chair by the pressure of Minty's strong plump hand on his shoulder. +"There," she said, "ye kin mind your dinner now, and I reckon we'll give +the others a chance to chip into the conversation," and at once applied +herself to the plate before her. + +The conversation presently became general, with the exception that +Minty, more or less engrossed by professional anxiety in the quality +of the dinner and occasional hurried visits to the kitchen, briefly +answered the few polite remarks which Mainwaring felt called upon to +address to her. Nevertheless, he was conscious, malgre her rallying +allusions to Miss Macy, that he felt none of the vague yet half pleasant +anxiety with which Louise was beginning to inspire him. He felt at +ease in Minty's presence, and believed, rightly or wrongly, that she +understood him as well as he understood her. And there were certainly +points in common between his two hostesses and their humbler though +proud dependent. The social evolution of Mrs. Bradley and Louise +Macy from some previous Minty was neither remote nor complete; the +self-sufficient independence, ease, and quiet self-assertion were alike +in each. The superior position was still too recent and accidental for +either to resent or criticise qualities that were common to both. At +least, this was what he thought when not abandoning himself to the +gratification of a convalescent appetite; to the presence of two pretty +women, the sympathy of a genial friend, the healthy intoxication of the +white sunlight that glanced upon the pine walls, the views that mirrored +themselves in the open windows, and the pure atmosphere in which The +Lookout seemed to swim. Wandering breezes of balm and spice lightly +stirred the flowers on the table, and seemed to fan his hair and +forehead with softly healing breath. Looking up in an interval of +silence, he caught Bradley's gray eyes fixed upon him with a subdued +light of amusement and affection, as of an elder brother regarding a +schoolboy's boisterous appetite at some feast. Mainwaring laid down +his knife and fork with a laughing color, touched equally by Bradley's +fraternal kindliness and the consciousness of his gastronomical powers. + +"Hang it, Bradley; look here! I know my appetite's disgraceful, but what +can a fellow do? In such air, with such viands and such company! It's +like the bees getting drunk on Hybla and Hymettus, you know. I'm not +responsible!" + +"It's the first square meal I believe you've really eaten in six +months," said Bradley, gravely. "I can't understand why your doctor +allowed you to run down so dreadfully." + +"I reckon you ain't as keerful of yourself, you Britishers, ez us," said +Minty. "Lordy! Why there's Pop invests in more patent medicines in one +day than you have in two weeks, and he'd make two of you. Mebbe your +folks don't look after you enough." + +"I'm a splendid advertisement of what YOUR care and your medicines have +done," said Mainwaring, gratefully, to Mrs. Bradley; "and if you ever +want to set up a 'Cure' here, I'm ready with a ten-page testimonial." + +"Have a care, Mainwaring," said Bradley, laughing, "that the ladies +don't take you at your word. Louise and Jenny have been doing their +best for the last year to get me to accept a flattering offer from +a Sacramento firm to put up a hotel for tourists on the site of The +Lookout. Why, I believe that they have already secretly in their +hearts concocted a flaming prospectus of 'Unrivalled Scenery' and +'Health-giving Air,' and are looking forward to Saturday night hops on +the piazza." + +"Have you really, though?" said Mainwaring, gazing from the one to the +other. + +"We should certainly see more company than we do now, and feel a little +less out of the world," said Louise, candidly. "There are no neighbors +here--I mean the people at the Summit are not," she added, with a slight +glance towards Minty. + +"And Mr. Bradley would find it more profitable--not to say more suitable +to a man of his position--than this wretched saw-mill and timber +business," said Mrs. Bradley, decidedly. + +Mainwaring was astounded; was it possible they considered it more +dignified for a lawyer to keep a hotel than a saw-mill? Bradley, as if +answering what was passing in his mind, said mischievously, "I'm +not sure, exactly, what my position is, my dear, and I'm afraid I've +declined the hotel on business principles. But, by the way, Mainwaring, +I found a letter at the mill this morning from Mr. Richardson. He is +about to pay us the distinguished honor of visiting The Lookout, solely +on your account, my dear fellow." + +"But I wrote him that I was much better, and it wasn't necessary for him +to come," said Mainwaring. + +"He makes an excuse of some law business with me. I suppose he considers +the mere fact of his taking the trouble to come here, all the way from +San Francisco, a sufficient honor to justify any absence of formal +invitation," said Bradley, smiling. + +"But he's only--I mean he's my father's banker," said Mainwaring, +correcting himself, "and--you don't keep a hotel." + +"Not yet," returned Bradley, with a mischievous glance at the two women, +"but The Lookout is elastic, and I dare say we can manage to put him +up." + +A silence ensued. It seemed as if some shadow, or momentary darkening +of the brilliant atmosphere; some film across the mirror-like expanse of +the open windows, or misty dimming of their wholesome light, had arisen +to their elevation. Mainwaring felt that he was looking forward with +unreasoning indignation and uneasiness to this impending interruption +of their idyllic life; Mrs. Bradley and Louise, who had become a +little more constrained and formal under Minty's freedom, were less +sympathetic; even the irrepressible Minty appeared absorbed in the +responsibilities of the dinner. + +Bradley alone preserved his usual patient good-humor. "We'll take +our coffee on the veranda, and the ladies will join us by and by, +Mainwaring; besides, I don't know that I can allow you, as an invalid, +to go entirely through Minty's bountiful menu at present. You shall have +the sweets another time." + +When they were alone on the veranda, he said, between the puffs of his +black brier-wood pipe,--a pet aversion of Mrs. Bradley,--"I wonder how +Richardson will accept Minty!" + +"If I can, I think he MUST," returned Mainwaring, dryly. "By Jove, it +will be great fun to see him; but"--he stopped and hesitated--"I don't +know about the ladies. I don't think, you know, that they'll stand Minty +again before another stranger." + +Bradley glanced quickly at the young man; their eyes met, and they both +joined in a superior and, I fear, disloyal smile. After a pause Bradley, +as if in a spirit of further confidence, took his pipe from his mouth +and pointed to the blue abyss before them. + +"Look at that profundity, Mainwaring, and think of it ever being bullied +and overawed by a long veranda-load of gaping, patronizing tourists, +and the idiotic flirting females of their species. Think of a lot of +over-dressed creatures flouting those severe outlines and deep-toned +distances with frippery and garishness. You know how you have been +lulled to sleep by that delicious, indefinite, far-off murmur of +the canyon at night--think of it being broken by a crazy waltz or a +monotonous german--by the clatter of waiters and the pop of champagne +corks. And yet, by thunder, those women are capable of liking both and +finding no discord in them!" + +"Dancing ain't half bad, you know," said Mainwaring, conscientiously, +"if a chap's got the wind to do it; and all Americans, especially the +women, dance better than we do. But I say, Bradley, to hear you talk, +a fellow wouldn't suspect you were as big a Vandal as anybody, with a +beastly, howling saw-mill in the heart of the primeval forest. By Jove, +you quite bowled me over that first day we met, when you popped your +head out of that delirium tremens shaking mill, like the very genius of +destructive improvement." + +"But that was FIGHTING Nature, not patronizing her; and it's a business +that pays. That reminds me that I must go back to it," said Bradley, +rising and knocking the ashes from his pipe. + +"Not AFTER dinner, surely!" said Mainwaring, in surprise. "Come now, +that's too much like the bolting Yankee of the travellers' books." + +"There's a heavy run to get through tonight. We're working against +time," returned Bradley. Even while speaking he had vanished within the +house, returned quickly--having replaced his dark suit by jean trousers +tucked in heavy boots, and a red flannel shirt over his starched white +one--and, nodding gayly to Mainwaring, stepped from the lower end of the +veranda. "The beggar actually looks pleased to go," said Mainwaring to +himself in wonderment. + +"Oh! Jim," said Mrs. Bradley, appearing at the door. + +"Yes," said Bradley, faintly, from the bushes. + +"Minty's ready. You might take her home." + +"All right. I'll wait." + +"I hope I haven't frightened Miss Sharpe away," said Mainwaring. "She +isn't going, surely?" + +"Only to get some better clothes, on account of company. I'm afraid +you are giving her a good deal of trouble, Mr. Mainwaring," said Mrs. +Bradley, laughing. + +"She wished me to say good-by to you for her, as she couldn't come on +the veranda in her old shawl and sun-bonnet," added Louise, who had +joined them. "What do you really think of her, Mr. Mainwaring? I call +her quite pretty, at times. Don't you?" + +Mainwaring knew not what to say. He could not understand why they +could have any special interest in the girl, or care to know what he, a +perfect stranger, thought of her. He avoided a direct reply, however, by +playfully wondering how Mrs. Bradley could subject her husband to Miss +Minty's undivided fascinations. + +"Oh, Jim always takes her home--if it's in the evening. He gets along +with these people better than we do," returned Mrs. Bradley, +dryly. "But," she added, with a return of her piquant Quaker-like +coquettishness, "Jim says we are to devote ourselves to you to-night--in +retaliation, I suppose. We are to amuse you, and not let you get +excited; and you are to be sent to bed early." + +It is to be feared that these latter wise precautions--invaluable for +all defenceless and enfeebled humanity--were not carried out: and it +was late when Mainwaring eventually retired, with brightened eyes and a +somewhat accelerated pulse. For the ladies, who had quite regained that +kindly equanimity which Minty had rudely interrupted, had also added +a delicate and confidential sympathy in their relations with +Mainwaring,--as of people who had suffered in common,--and he +experienced these tender attentions at their hands which any two women +are emboldened by each other's saving presence to show any single member +of our sex. Indeed, he hardly knew if his satisfaction was the more +complete when Mrs. Bradley, withdrawing for a few moments, left him +alone on the veranda with Louise and the vast, omnipotent night. + +For a while they sat silent, in the midst of the profound and +measureless calm. Looking down upon the dim moonlit abyss at their feet, +they themselves seemed a part of this night that arched above it; the +half-risen moon appeared to linger long enough at their side to enwrap +and suffuse them with its glory; a few bright stars quietly ringed +themselves around them, and looked wonderingly into the level of their +own shining eyes. For some vague yearning to humanity seemed to draw +this dark and passionless void towards them. The vast protecting +maternity of Nature leant hushed and breathless over the solitude. Warm +currents of air rose occasionally from the valley, which one might have +believed were sighs from its full and overflowing breast, or a grateful +coolness swept their cheeks and hair when the tranquil heights around +them were moved to slowly respond. Odors from invisible bay and +laurel sometimes filled the air; the incense of some rare and remoter +cultivated meadow beyond their ken, or the strong germinating breath +of leagues of wild oats, that had yellowed the upland by day. In the +silence and shadow, their voices took upon themselves, almost without +their volition, a far-off confidential murmur, with intervals of meaning +silence--rather as if their thoughts had spoken for themselves, and they +had stopped wonderingly to listen. They talked at first vaguely to this +discreet audience of space and darkness, and then, growing bolder, spoke +to each other and of themselves. Invested by the infinite gravity of +nature, they had no fear of human ridicule to restrain their youthful +conceit or the extravagance of their unimportant confessions. +They talked of their tastes, of their habits, of their friends +and acquaintances. They settled some points of doctrine, duty, and +etiquette, with the sweet seriousness of youth and its all-powerful +convictions. The listening vines would have recognized no flirtation or +love-making in their animated but important confidences; yet when Mrs. +Bradley reappeared to warn the invalid that it was time to seek his +couch, they both coughed slightly in the nervous consciousness of some +unaccustomed quality in their voices, and a sense of interruption far +beyond their own or the innocent intruder's ken. + +"Well?" said Mrs. Bradley, in the sitting-room as Mainwaring's steps +retreated down the passage to his room. + +"Well," said Louise with a slight yawn, leaning her pretty shoulders +languidly against the door-post, as she shaded her moonlight-accustomed +eyes from the vulgar brilliancy of Mrs. Bradley's bedroom candle. +"Well--oh, he talked a great deal about 'his people' as he called them, +and I talked about us. He's very nice. You know in some things he's +really like a boy." + +"He looks much better." + +"Yes; but he is far from strong yet." + +Meantime, Mainwaring had no other confidant of his impressions than his +own thoughts. Mingled with his exaltation, which was the more seductive +that it had no well-defined foundation for existing, and implied +no future responsibility, was a recurrence of his uneasiness at the +impending visit of Richardson the next day. Strangely enough, it had +increased under the stimulus of the evening. Just as he was really +getting on with the family, he felt sure that this visitor would import +some foreign element into their familiarity, as Minty had done. It was +possible they would not like him: now he remembered there was +really something ostentatiously British and insular about this +Richardson--something they would likely resent. Why couldn't this fellow +have come later--or even before? Before what? But here he fell asleep, +and almost instantly slipped from this veranda in the Sierras, six +thousand miles away, to an ancient terrace, overgrown with moss and +tradition, that overlooked the sedate glory of an English park. Here he +found himself, restricted painfully by his inconsistent night-clothes, +endeavoring to impress his mother and sisters with the singular +virtues and excellences of his American host and hostesses--virtues and +excellences that he himself was beginning to feel conscious had become +more or less apocryphal in that atmosphere. He heard his mother's voice +saying severely, "When you learn, Francis, to respect the opinions and +prejudices of your family enough to prevent your appearing before them +in this uncivilized aboriginal costume, we will listen to what you have +to say of the friends whose habits you seem to have adopted;" and he +was frantically indignant that his efforts to convince them that his +negligence was a personal oversight, and not a Californian custom, +were utterly futile. But even then this vision was brushed away by the +bewildering sweep of Louise's pretty skirt across the dreamy picture, +and her delicate features and softly-fringed eyes remained the last to +slip from his fading consciousness. + +The moon rose higher and higher above the sleeping house and softly +breathing canyon. There was nothing to mar the idyllic repose of the +landscape; only the growing light of the last two hours had brought out +in the far eastern horizon a dim white peak, that gleamed faintly among +the stars, like a bridal couch spread between the hills fringed with +fading nuptial torches. No one would have believed that behind that +impenetrable shadow to the west, in the heart of the forest, the +throbbing saw-mill of James Bradley was even at that moment eating its +destructive way through the conserved growth of Nature and centuries, +and that the refined proprietor of house and greenwood, with the glow of +his furnace fires on his red shirt, and his alert, intelligent eyes, was +the genie of that devastation, and the toiling leader of the shadowy, +toiling figures around him. + + + + +CHAPER III. + + +Amid the beauty of the most uncultivated and untrodden wilderness there +are certain localities where the meaner and mere common processes +of Nature take upon themselves a degrading likeness to the slovenly, +wasteful, and improvident processes of man. The unrecorded land-slip +disintegrating a whole hillside will not only lay bare the delicate +framework of strata and deposit to the vulgar eye, but hurl into the +valley a debris so monstrous and unlovely as to shame even the hideous +ruins left by dynamite, hydraulic, or pick and shovel; an overflown and +forgotten woodland torrent will leave in some remote hollow a disturbed +and ungraceful chaos of inextricable logs, branches, rock, and soil that +will rival the unsavory details of some wrecked or abandoned settlement. +Of lesser magnitude and importance, there are certain natural +dust-heaps, sinks, and cesspools, where the elements have collected the +cast-off, broken, and frayed disjecta of wood and field--the sweepings +of the sylvan household. It was remarkable that Nature, so kindly +considerate of mere human ruins, made no attempt to cover up or disguise +these monuments of her own mortality: no grass grew over the unsightly +landslides, no moss or ivy clothed the stripped and bleached skeletons +of overthrown branch and tree; the dead leaves and withered husks rotted +in their open grave uncrossed by vine and creeper. Even the animals, +except the lower organizations, shunned those haunts of decay and ruin. + +It was scarcely a hundred yards from one of those dreary receptacles +that Mr. Bradley had taken leave of Miss Minty Sharpe. The cabin +occupied by her father, herself, and a younger brother stood, in fact, +on the very edge of the little hollow, which was partly filled with +decayed wood, leaves, and displacements of the crumbling bank, with +the coal dust and ashes which Mr. Sharpe had added from his forge, that +stood a few paces distant at the corner of a cross-road. The occupants +of the cabin had also contributed to the hollow the refuse of their +household in broken boxes, earthenware, tin cans, and cast-off clothing; +and it is not improbable that the site of the cabin was chosen with +reference to this convenient disposal of useless and encumbering +impedimenta. It was true that the locality offered little choice in +the way of beauty. An outcrop of brown granite--a portent of higher +altitudes--extended a quarter of a mile from the nearest fringe of dwarf +laurel and "brush" in one direction; in the other an advanced file of +Bradley's woods had suffered from some long-forgotten fire, and still +raised its blackened masts and broken stumps over the scorched and arid +soil, swept of older underbrush and verdure. On the other side of the +road a dark ravine, tangled with briers and haunted at night by owls and +wild cats, struggled wearily on, until blundering at last upon the edge +of the Great Canyon, it slipped and lost itself forever in a single +furrow of those mighty flanks. When Bradley had once asked Sharpe why he +had not built his house in the ravine, the blacksmith had replied: "That +until the Lord had appointed his time, he reckoned to keep his head +above ground and the foundations thereof." Howbeit, the ravine, or the +"run," as it was locally known, was Minty's only Saturday afternoon +resort for recreation or berries. "It was," she had explained, "pow'ful +soothin', and solitary." + +She entered the house--a rude, square building of unpainted +boards--containing a sitting-room, a kitchen, and two bedrooms. A glance +at these rooms, which were plainly furnished, and whose canvas-colored +walls were adorned with gorgeous agricultural implement +circulars, patent medicine calendars, with polytinted chromos and +cheaply-illuminated Scriptural texts, showed her that a certain neatness +and order had been preserved during her absence; and, finding the house +empty, she crossed the barren and blackened intervening space between +the back door and her father's forge, and entered the open shed. The +light was fading from the sky; but the glow of the forge lit up the +dusty road before it, and accented the blackness of the rocky ledge +beyond. A small curly-headed boy, bearing a singular likeness to a +smudged and blackened crayon drawing of Minty, was mechanically +blowing the bellows and obviously intent upon something else; while her +father--a powerfully built man, with a quaintly dissatisfied expression +of countenance--was with equal want of interest mechanically hammering +at a horseshoe. Without noticing Minty's advent, he lazily broke into a +querulous drawling chant of some vague religious character: + + "O tur-ren, sinner; tur-ren. + For the Lord bids you turn--ah! + O tur-ren, sinner; tur-ren. + Why will you die?" + +The musical accent adapted itself to the monotonous fall of the +sledge-hammer; and at every repetition of the word "turn" he suited the +action to the word by turning the horseshoe with the iron in his left +hand. A slight grunt at the end of every stroke, and the simultaneous +repetition of "turn" seemed to offer him amusement and relief. Minty, +without speaking, crossed the shop, and administered a sound box on her +brother's ear. "Take that, and let me ketch you agen layin' low when my +back's turned, to put on your store pants." + +"The others had fetched away in the laig," said the boy, opposing a knee +and elbow at acute angle to further attack. + +"You jest get and change 'em," said Minty. + +The sudden collapse of the bellows broke in upon the soothing refrain of +Mr. Sharpe, and caused him to turn also. + +"It's Minty," he said, replacing the horseshoe on the coals, and setting +his powerful arms and the sledge on the anvil with an exaggerated +expression of weariness. + +"Yes; it's me," said Minty, "and Creation knows it's time I DID come, to +keep that boy from ruinin' us with his airs and conceits." + +"Did ye bring over any o' that fever mixter?" + +"No. Bradley sez you're loading yerself up with so much o' that bitter +bark--kuinine they call it over there--that you'll lift the ruff off +your head next. He allows ye ain't got no ague; it's jest wind and +dyspepsy. He sez yer's strong ez a hoss." + +"Bradley," said Sharpe, laying aside his sledge with an aggrieved manner +which was, however, as complacent as his fatigue and discontent, "ez one +of them nat'ral born finikin skunks ez I despise. I reckon he began +to give p'ints to his parents when he was about knee-high to Richelieu +there. He's on them confidential terms with hisself and the Almighty +that he reckons he ken run a saw-mill and a man's insides at the same +time with one hand tied behind him. And this finikin is up to his +conceit: he wanted to tell me that that yer handy brush dump outside our +shanty was unhealthy. Give a man with frills like that his own way and +he'd be a sprinkling odor cologne and peppermint all over the country." + +"He set your shoulder as well as any doctor," said Minty. + +"That's bone-settin', and a nat'ral gift," returned Sharpe, as +triumphantly as his habitual depression would admit; "it ain't conceit +and finikin got out o' books! Well," he added, after a pause, "wot's +happened?" + +Minty's face slightly changed. "Nothin'; I kem back to get some things," +she said shortly, moving away. + +"And ye saw HIM?" + +"Ye-e-s," drawled Minty, carelessly, still retreating. + +"Bixby was along here about noon. He says the stranger was suthin' high +and mighty in his own country, and them 'Frisco millionaires are quite +sweet on him. Where are ye goin'?" + +"In the house." + +"Well, look yer, Minty. Now that you're here, ye might get up a batch +o' hot biscuit for supper. Dinner was that promiscous and experimental +to-day, along o' Richelieu's nat'ral foolin', that I think I could git +outside of a little suthin' now, if only to prop up a kind of innard +sinkin' that takes me. Ye ken tell me the news at supper." + +Later, however, when Mr. Sharpe had quitted his forge for the night and, +seated at his domestic board, was, with a dismal presentiment of future +indigestion, voraciously absorbing his favorite meal of hot saleratus +biscuits swimming in butter, he had apparently forgotten his curiosity +concerning Mainwaring and settled himself to a complaining chronicle of +the day's mishaps. "Nat'rally, havin' an extra lot o' work on hand and +no time for foolin', what does that ornery Richelieu get up and do this +mornin'? Ye know them ridiklus specimens that he's been chippin' outer +that ledge that the yearth slipped from down the run, and litterin' up +the whole shanty with 'em. Well, darn my skin! if he didn't run a heap +of 'em, mixed up with coal, unbeknowned to me, in the forge, to make +what he called a 'fire essay' of 'em. Nat'rally, I couldn't get a +blessed iron hot, and didn't know what had gone of the fire, or the coal +either, for two hours, till I stopped work and raked out the coal. That +comes from his hangin' round that saw-mill in the woods, and listenin' +to Bradley's high-falutin' talk about rocks and strata and sich." + +"But Bradley don't go a cent on minin', Pop," said Minty. "He sez the +woods is good enough for him; and there's millions to be made when the +railroad comes along, and timber's wanted." + +"But until then he's got to keep hisself, to pay wages, and keep the +mill runnin'. Onless it's, ez Bixby says, that he hopes to get that +Englishman to rope in some o' them 'Frisco friends of his to take a +hand. Ye didn't have any o' that kind o' talk, did ye?" + +"No; not THAT kind o' talk," said Minty. + +"Not THAT kind o' talk!" repeated her father with aggrieved curiosity, +"Wot kind, then?" + +"Well," said Minty, lifting her black eyes to her father's; "I ain't +no account, and you ain't no account either. You ain't got no college +education, ain't got no friends in 'Frisco, and ain't got no high-toned +style; I can't play the pianner, jabber French, nor get French dresses. +We ain't got no fancy 'Shallet,' as they call it, with a first-class +view of nothing; but only a shanty on dry rock. But, afore I'D take +advantage of a lazy, gawky boy--for it ain't anything else, though he's +good meanin' enough--that happened to fall sick in MY house, and coax +and cosset him, and wrap him in white cotton, and mother him, and sister +him, and Aunt Sukey him, and almost dry-nuss him gin'rally, jist to get +him sweet on me and on mine, and take the inside track of others--I'D be +an Injin! And if you'd allow it, Pop, you'd be wuss nor a nigger!" + +"Sho!" said her father, kindling with that intense gratification with +which the male receives any intimation of alien feminine weakness. "It +ain't that, Minty, I wanter know!" + +"It's jist that, Pop; and I ez good ez let 'em know I seed it. I ain't a +fool, if some folks do drop their eyes and pertend to wipe the laugh out +of their noses with a handkerchief when I let out to speak. I mayn't be +good enough kempany--" + +"Look yer, Minty," interrupted the blacksmith, sternly, half rising +from his seat with every trace of his former weakness vanished from his +hardset face; "do you mean to say that they put on airs to ye--to MY +darter?" + +"No," said Minty quickly; "the men didn't; and don't you, a man, mix +yourself up with women's meannesses. I ken manage 'em, Pop, with one +hand." + +Mr. Sharpe looked at his daughter's flashing black eyes. Perhaps an +uneasy recollection of the late Mrs. Sharpe's remarkable capacity in +that respect checked his further rage. + +"No. Wot I was sayin'," resumed Minty, "ez that I mayn't be thought by +others good enough to keep kempany with baronetts ez is to be--though +baronetts mightn't object--but I ain't mean enough to try to steal away +some ole woman's darling boy in England, or snatch some likely young +English girl's big brother outer the family without sayin' by your +leave. How'd you like it if Richelieu was growed up, and went to +sea,--and it would be like his peartness,--and he fell sick in some +foreign land, and some princess or other skyulged HIM underhand away +from us?" + +Probably owing to the affair of the specimens, the elder Sharpe did not +seem to regard the possible mesalliance of Richelieu with extraordinary +disfavor. "That boy is conceited enough with hair ile and fine clothes +for anything," he said plaintively. "But didn't that Louise Macy hev a +feller already--that Captain Greyson? Wot's gone o' him?" + +"That's it," said Minty: "he kin go out in the woods and whistle now. +But all the same, she could hitch him in again at any time if the other +stranger kicked over the traces. That's the style over there at The +Lookout. There ain't ez much heart in them two women put together ez +would make a green gal flush up playin' forfeits. It's all in their +breed, Pop. Love ain't going to spile their appetites and complexions, +give 'em nose-bleed, nor put a drop o' water into their eyes in all +their natural born days. That's wot makes me mad. Ef I thought that Loo +cared a bit for that child I wouldn't mind; I'd just advise her to make +him get up and get--pack his duds out o' camp, and go home and not come +back until he had a written permit from his mother, or the other baronet +in office." + +"Looks sorter ef some one orter interfere," said the blacksmith, +reflectively. "'Tain't exackly a case for a vigilance committee, tho' +it's agin public morals, this sorter kidnappin' o' strangers. Looks ez +if it might bring the country into discredit in England." + +"Well, don't YOU go and interfere and havin' folks say ez my nose +was put out o' jint over there," said Minty, curtly. "There's another +Englishman comin' up from 'Frisco to see him to-morrow. Ef he ain't +scooped up by Jenny Bradley he'll guess there's a nigger in the fence +somewhere. But there, Pop, let it drop. It's a bad aig, anyway," she +concluded, rising from the table, and passing her hands down her frock +and her shapely hips, as if to wipe off further contamination of the +subject. "Where's Richelieu agin?" + +"Said he didn't want supper, and like ez not he's gone over to see that +fammerly at the Summit. There's a little girl thar he's sparkin', about +his own age." + +"His own age!" said Minty, indignantly. "Why, she's double that, if +she's a day. Well--if he ain't the triflinest, conceitednest little limb +that ever grew! I'd like to know where he got it from--it wasn't mar's +style." + +Mr. Sharpe smiled darkly. Richelieu's precocious gallantry evidently was +not considered as gratuitous as his experimental metallurgy. But as his +eyes followed his daughter's wholesome, Phyllis-like figure, a new idea +took possession of him: needless to say, however, it was in the line +of another personal aggrievement, albeit it took the form of religious +reflection. + +"It's curous, Minty, wot's foreordained, and wot ain't. Now, yer's one +of them high and mighty fellows, after the Lord, ez comes meanderin' +around here, and drops off--ez fur ez I kin hear--in a kind o' faint at +the first house he kems to, and is taken in and lodged and sumptuously +fed; and, nat'rally, they gets their reward for it. Now wot's to hev +kept that young feller from coming HERE and droppin' down in my forge, +or in this very room, and YOU a tendin' him, and jist layin' over them +folks at The Lookout?" + +"Wot's got hold o' ye, Pop? Don't I tell ye he had a letter to Jim +Bradley?" said Minty, quickly, with an angry flash of color in her +cheek. + +"That ain't it," said Sharpe confidently; "it's cos he WALKED. +Nat'rally, you'd think he'd RIDE, being high and mighty, and that's +where, ez the parson will tell ye, wot's merely fi-nite and human wisdom +errs! Ef that feller had ridden, he'd have had to come by this yer +road, and by this yer forge, and stop a spell like any other. But it +was foreordained that he should walk, jest cos it wasn't generally +kalkilated and reckoned on. So, YOU had no show." + +For a moment, Minty seemed struck with her father's original theory. +But with a vigorous shake of her shoulders she threw it off. Her eyes +darkened. + +"I reckon you ain't thinking, Pop--" she began. + +"I was only sayin' it was curous," he rejoined quietly. Nevertheless, +after a pause, he rose, coughed, and going up to the young girl, as she +leaned over the dresser, bent his powerful arm around her, and, drawing +her and the plate she was holding against his breast, laid his bearded +cheek for an instant softly upon her rebellious head. "It's all right, +Minty," he said; "ain't it, pet?" Minty's eyelids closed gently under +the familiar pressure. "Wot's that in your hair, Minty?" he said +tactfully, breaking an embarrassing pause. + +"Bar's grease, father," murmured Minty, in a child's voice--the grown-up +woman, under that magic touch, having lapsed again into her father's +motherless charge of ten years before. + +"It's pow'ful soothin', and pretty," said her father. + +"I made it myself--do you want some?" asked Minty. + +"Not now, girl!" For a moment they slightly rocked each other in that +attitude--the man dexterously, the woman with infinite tenderness--and +then they separated. + +Late that night, after Richelieu had returned, and her father wrestled +in his fitful sleep with the remorse of his guilty indulgence at supper, +Minty remained alone in her room, hard at work, surrounded by the +contents of one of her mother's trunks and the fragments of certain +ripped-up and newly-turned dresses. For Minty had conceived the bold +idea of altering one of her mother's gowns to the fashion of a certain +fascinating frock worn by Louise Macy. It was late when her self-imposed +task was completed. With a nervous trepidation that was novel to +her, Minty began to disrobe herself preparatory to trying on her new +creation. The light of a tallow candle and a large swinging lantern, +borrowed from her father's forge, fell shyly on her milky neck and +shoulders, and shone in her sparkling eyes, as she stood before her +largest mirror--the long glazed door of a kitchen clock which she had +placed upon her chest of drawers. Had poor Minty been content with the +full, free, and goddess-like outlines that it reflected, she would have +been spared her impending disappointment. For, alas! the dress of her +model had been framed upon a symmetrically attenuated French corset, and +the unfortunate Minty's fuller and ampler curves had under her simple +country stays known no more restraining cincture than knew the Venus +of Milo. The alteration was a hideous failure, it was neither Minty's +statuesque outline nor Louise Macy's graceful contour. Minty was no +fool, and the revelation of this slow education of the figure and +training of outline--whether fair or false in art--struck her quick +intelligence with all its full and hopeless significance. A bitter light +sprang to her eyes; she tore the wretched sham from her shoulders, and +then wrapping a shawl around her, threw herself heavily and sullenly on +the bed. But inaction was not a characteristic of Minty's emotion; she +presently rose again, and, taking an old work-box from her trunk, began +to rummage in its recesses. It was an old shell-incrusted affair, and +the apparent receptacle of such cheap odds and ends of jewelry as she +possessed; a hideous cameo ring, the property of the late Mrs. Sharpe, +was missing. She again rapidly explored the contents of the box, and +then an inspiration seized her, and she darted into her brother's +bedroom. + +That precocious and gallant Lovelace of ten, despite all sentiment, had +basely succumbed to the gross materialism of youthful slumber. On a +cot in the corner, half hidden under the wreck of his own careless and +hurried disrobing, with one arm hanging out of the coverlid, Richelieu +lay supremely unconscious. On the forefinger of his small but dirty hand +the missing cameo was still glittering guiltily. With a swift movement +of indignation Minty rushed with uplifted palm towards the tempting +expanse of youthful cheek that lay invitingly exposed upon the pillow. +Then she stopped suddenly. + +She had seen him lying thus a hundred times before. On the pillow near +him an indistinguishable mass of golden fur--the helpless bulk of a +squirrel chained to the leg of his cot; at his feet a wall-eyed cat, who +had followed his tyrannous caprices with the long-suffering devotion +of her sex; on the shelf above him a loathsome collection of flies +and tarantulas in dull green bottles: a slab of ginger-bread for light +nocturnal refection, and her own pot of bear's grease. Perhaps it was +the piteous defencelessness of youthful sleep, perhaps it was some +lingering memory of her father's caress; but as she gazed at him with +troubled eyes, the juvenile reprobate slipped back into the baby-boy +that she had carried in her own childish arms such a short time ago, +when the maternal responsibility had descended with the dead mother's +ill-fitting dresses upon her lank girlish figure and scant virgin +breast--and her hand fell listlessly at her side. + +The sleeper stirred slightly and awoke. At the same moment, by some +mysterious sympathy, a pair of beady bright eyes appeared in the bulk +of fur near his curls, the cat stretched herself, and even a vague +agitation was heard in the bottles on the shelf. Richelieu's blinking +eyes wandered from the candle to his sister, and then the guilty hand +was suddenly withdrawn under the bedclothes. + +"No matter, dear," said Minty; "it's mar's, and you kin wear it when you +like, if you'll only ask for it." + +Richelieu wondered if he was dreaming! This unexpected mildness--this +inexplicable tremor in his sister's voice: it must be some occult +influence of the night season on the sisterly mind, possibly akin to a +fear of ghosts! He made a mental note of it in view of future favors, +yet for the moment he felt embarrassedly gratified. "Ye ain't wantin' +anything, Minty," he said affectionately; "a pail o' cold water from the +far spring--no nothin'?" He made an ostentatious movement as if to +rise, yet sufficiently protracted to prevent any hasty acceptance of his +prodigal offer. + +"No, dear," she said, still gazing at him with an absorbed look in her +dark eyes. + +Richelieu felt a slight creepy sensation under that lonely far-off gaze. +"Your eyes look awful big at night, Minty," he said. He would have added +"and pretty," but she was his sister, and he had the lofty fraternal +conviction of his duty in repressing the inordinate vanity of the sex. +"Ye're sure ye ain't wantin' nothin'?" + +"Not now, dear." She paused a moment, and then said deliberately: "But +you wouldn't mind turnin' out after sun-up and runnin' an errand for me +over to The Lookout?" + +Richelieu's eyes sparkled so suddenly that even in her absorption +Minty noticed the change. "But ye're not goin' to tarry over there, ner +gossip--you hear? Yer to take this yer message. Yer to say 'that it will +be onpossible for me to come back there, on account--on account of--'" + +"Important business," suggested Richelieu; "that's the perlite style." + +"Ef you like." She leaned over the bed and put her lips to his forehead, +still damp with the dews of sleep, and then to his long-lashed lids. +"Mind Nip!"--the squirrel--he practically suggested. For an instant +their blond curls mingled on the pillow. "Now go to sleep," she said +curtly. + +But Richelieu had taken her white neck in the short strangulatory hug of +the small boy, and held her fast. "Ye'll let me put on my best pants?" + +"Yes." + +"And wear that ring?" + +"Yes"--a little sadly. + +"Then yer kin count me in, Minty; and see here"--his voice sank to a +confidential whisper--"mebbee some day ye'll be beholden to ME for a lot +o' real jewelry." + +She returned slowly to her room, and, opening the window, looked out +upon the night. The same moon that had lent such supererogatory grace to +the natural beauty of The Lookout, here seemed to have failed; as Minty +had, in disguising the relentless limitations of Nature or the cruel +bonds of custom. The black plain of granite, under its rays, appeared +only to extend its poverty to some remoter barrier; the blackened stumps +of the burnt forest stood bleaker against the sky, like broken and +twisted pillars of iron. The cavity of the broken ledge where Richelieu +had prospected was a hideous chasm of bluish blackness, over which a +purple vapor seemed to hover; the "brush dump" beside the house showed +a cavern of writhing and distorted objects stiffened into dark rigidity. +She had often looked upon the prospect: it had never seemed so hard and +changeless; yet she accepted it, as she had accepted it before. + +She turned away, undressed herself mechanically, and went to bed. She +had an idea that she had been very foolish; that her escape from +being still more foolish was something miraculous, and in some measure +connected with Providence, her father, her little brother, and her dead +mother, whose dress she had recklessly spoiled. But that she had even so +slightly touched the bitterness and glory of renunciation--as written +of heroines and fine ladies by novelists and poets--never entered the +foolish head of Minty Sharpe, the blacksmith's daughter. + + + + +CHAPER IV. + + +It was a little after daybreak next morning that Mainwaring awoke from +the first unrefreshing night he had passed at The Lookout. He was so +feverish and restless that he dressed himself at sunrise, and cautiously +stepped out upon the still silent veranda. The chairs which he and +Louise Macy had occupied were still, it seemed to him, conspicuously +confidential with each other, and he separated them, but as he looked +down into the Great Canyon at his feet he was conscious of some +undefinable change in the prospect. A slight mist was rising from the +valley, as if it were the last of last night's illusions; the first +level sunbeams were obtrusively searching, and the keen morning air had +a dryly practical insistence which irritated him, until a light footstep +on the farther end of the veranda caused him to turn sharply. + +It was the singular apparition of a small boy, bearing a surprising +resemblance to Minty Sharpe, and dressed in an unique fashion. On a +tumbled sea of blond curls a "chip" sailor hat, with a broad red ribbon, +rode jauntily. But here the nautical suggestion changed, as had the +desire of becoming a pirate which induced it. A red shirt, with a white +collar, and a yellow plaid ribbon tie, that also recalled Minty Sharpe, +lightly turned the suggestion of his costume to mining. Short black +velvet trousers, coming to his knee, and ostentatiously new short-legged +boots, with visible straps like curling ears, completed the entirely +original character of his lower limbs. + +Mainwaring, always easily gentle and familiar with children and his +inferiors, looked at him with an encouraging smile. Richelieu--for it +was he--advanced gravely and held out his hand, with the cameo ring +apparent. Mainwaring, with equal gravity, shook it warmly, and removed +his hat. Richelieu, keenly observant, did the same. + +"Is Jim Bradley out yet?" asked Richelieu, carelessly. + +"No; I think not. But I'm Frank Mainwaring. Will I do?" + +Richelieu smiled. The dimples, the white teeth, the dark, laughing eyes, +were surely Minty's? + +"I'm Richelieu," he rejoined with equal candor. + +"Richelieu?" + +"Yes. That Frenchman--the Lord Cardinal--you know. Mar saw Forrest do +him out in St. Louis." + +"Do him?" + +"Yes, in the theayter." + +With a confused misconception of his meaning, Mainwaring tried to +recall the historical dress of the great Cardinal and fit it to the +masquerader--if such he were--before him. But Richelieu relieved him by +adding,-- + +"Richelieu Sharpe." + +"Oh, that's your NAME!" said Mainwaring, cheerfully. "Then you're Miss +Minty's brother. I know her. How jolly lucky!" + +They both shook hands again. Richelieu, eager to get rid of the burden +of his sister's message, which he felt was in the way of free-and-easy +intercourse with this charming stranger, looked uneasily towards the +house. + +"I say," said Mainwaring, "if you're in a hurry, you'd better go in +there and knock. I hear some one stirring in the kitchen." + +Richelieu nodded, but first went back to the steps of the veranda, +picked up a small blue knotted handkerchief, apparently containing some +heavy objects, and repassed Mainwaring. + +"What! have you cut it, Richelieu, with your valuables? What have you +got there?" + +"Specimins," said Richelieu, shortly, and vanished. + +He returned presently. "Well, Cardinal, did you see anybody?" asked +Mainwaring. + +"Mrs. Bradley; but Jim's over to the mill. I'm goin' there." + +"Did you see Miss Macy?" continued Mainwaring, carelessly. + +"Loo?" + +"Loo!--well; yes." + +"No. She's philanderin' with Captain Greyson." + +"Philandering with Greyson?" echoed Mainwaring, in wonder. + +"Yes; on horseback on the ridge." + +"You mean she's riding out with Mr.--with Captain Greyson?" + +"Yes; ridin' AND philanderin'," persisted Richelieu. + +"And what do you call philandering?" + +"Well; I reckon you and she oughter know," returned Richelieu, with a +precocious air. + +"Certainly," said Mainwaring, with a faint smile. Richelieu really was +like Minty. + +There was a long silence. This young Englishman was becoming exceedingly +uninteresting. Richelieu felt that he was gaining neither profit nor +amusement, and losing time. "I'm going," he said. + +"Good morning," said Mainwaring, without looking up. + +Richelieu picked up his specimens, thoroughly convinced of the +stranger's glittering deceitfulness, and vanished. + +It was nearly eight o'clock when Mrs. Bradley came from the house. She +apologized, with a slightly distrait smile, for the tardiness of the +household. "Mr. Bradley stayed at the mill all night, and will not be +here until breakfast, when he brings your friend Mr. Richardson with +him"--Mainwaring scarcely repressed a movement of impatience--"who +arrives early. It's unfortunate that Miss Sharpe can't come to-day." + +In his abstraction Mainwaring did not notice that Mrs. Bradley slightly +accented Minty's formal appellation, and said carelessly,-- + +"Oh, that's why her brother came over here so early!" + +"Did YOU see him?" asked Mrs. Bradley, almost abruptly. + +"Yes. He is an amusing little beggar; but I think he shares his sister's +preference for Mr. Bradley. He deserted me here in the veranda for him +at the mill." + +"Louise will keep you company as soon as she has changed her dress," +continued Mrs. Bradley. "She was out riding early this morning with a +friend. She's very fond of early morning rides." + +"AND philandering," repeated Mainwaring to himself. It was quite natural +for Miss Macy to ride out in the morning, after the fashion of +the country, with an escort; but why had the cub insisted on the +"philandering"? He had said, "AND philandering," distinctly. It was a +nasty thing for him to say. Any other fellow but he, Mainwaring, might +misunderstand the whole thing. Perhaps he ought to warn her--but no! he +could not repeat the gossip of a child, and that child the brother of +one of her inferiors. But was Minty an inferior? Did she and Minty talk +together about this fellow Greyson? At all events, it would only revive +the awkwardness of the preceding day, and he resolved to say nothing. + +He was rewarded by a half-inquiring, half-confiding look in Louise's +bright eyes, when she presently greeted him on the veranda. "She had +quite forgotten," she said, "to tell him last night of her morning's +engagement; indeed, she had half forgotten IT. It used to be a favorite +practice of hers, with Captain Greyson; but she had lately given it up. +She believed she had not ridden since--since--" + +"Since when?" asked Mainwaring. + +"Well, since you were ill," she said frankly. + +A quick pleasure shone in Mainwaring's cheek and eye; but Louise's +pretty lids did not drop, nor her faint, quiet bloom deepen. Breakfast +was already waiting when Mr. Richardson arrived alone. + +He explained that Mr. Bradley had some important and unexpected business +which had delayed him, but which, he added, "Mr. Bradley says may +prove interesting enough to you to excuse his absence this morning." +Mainwaring was not displeased that his critical and observant host was +not present at their meeting. Louise Macy was, however, as demurely +conscious of the different bearing of the two compatriots. Richardson's +somewhat self-important patronage of the two ladies, and that +Californian familiarity he had acquired, changed to a certain uneasy +deference towards Mainwaring; while the younger Englishman's slightly +stiff and deliberate cordiality was, nevertheless, mingled with a +mysterious understanding that appeared innate and unconscious. Louise +was quick to see that these two men, more widely divergent in quality +than any two of her own countrymen, were yet more subtly connected +by some unknown sympathy than the most equal of Americans. Minty's +prophetic belief of the effect of the two women upon Richardson was +certainly true as regarded Mrs. Bradley. The banker--a large material +nature--was quickly fascinated by the demure, puritanic graces of that +lady, and was inclined to exhibit a somewhat broad and ostentatious +gallantry that annoyed Mainwaring. When they were seated alone on +the veranda, which the ladies had discreetly left to them, Richardson +said,-- + +"Odd I didn't hear of Bradley's wife before. She seems a spicy, pretty, +comfortable creature. Regularly thrown away with him up here." + +Mainwaring replied coldly that she was "an admirable helpmeet of a very +admirable man," not, however, without an uneasy recollection of her +previous confidences respecting her husband. "They have been most +thoroughly good and kind to me; my own brother and sister could not have +done more. And certainly not with better taste or delicacy," he added, +markedly. + +"Certainly, certainly," said Richardson, hurriedly. "I wrote to Lady +Mainwaring that you were taken capital care of by some very honest +people; and that--" + +"Lady Mainwaring already knows what I think of them, and what she owes +to their kindness," said Mainwaring, dryly. + +"True, true," said Richardson, apologetically. "Of course you must have +seen a good deal of them. I only know Bradley in a business way. He's +been trying to get the Bank to help him to put up some new mills here; +but we didn't see it. I dare say he is good company--rather amusing, +eh?" + +Mainwaring had the gift of his class of snubbing by the polite and +forgiving oblivion of silence. Richardson shifted uneasily in his chair, +but continued with assumed carelessness:-- + +"No; I only knew of this cousin, Miss Macy. I heard of her when she +was visiting some friends in Menlo Park last year. Rather an attractive +girl. They say Colonel Johnson, of Sacramento, took quite a fancy +to her--it would have been a good match, I dare say, for he is very +rich--but the thing fell through in some way. Then, they say, SHE wanted +to marry that Spaniard, young Pico, of the Amador Ranche; but his family +wouldn't hear of it. Somehow, she's deuced unlucky. I suppose she'll +make a mess of it with Captain Greyson she was out riding with this +morning." + +"Didn't the Bank think Bradley's mills a good investment?" asked +Mainwaring quietly, when Richardson paused. + +"Not with him in it; he is not a business man, you know." + +"I thought he was. He seems to me an energetic man, who knows his work, +and is not afraid to look after it himself." + +"That's just it. He has got absurd ideas of co-operating with his +workmen, you know, and doing everything slowly and on a limited scale. +The only thing to be done is to buy up all the land on this ridge, run +off the settlers, freeze out all the other mills, and put it into a big +San Francisco company on shares. That's the only way we would look at +it." + +"But you don't consider the investment bad, even from HIS point of +view?" + +"Perhaps not." + +"And you only decline it because it isn't big enough for the Bank?" + +"Exactly." + +"Richardson," said Mainwaring, slowly rising, putting his hands in his +trousers pockets, and suddenly looking down upon the banker from the +easy level of habitual superiority, "I wish you'd attend to this thing +for me. I desire to make some return to Mr. Bradley for his kindness. I +wish to give him what help he wants--in his own way--you understand. I +wish it, and I believe my father wishes it, too. If you'd like him to +write to you to that effect--" + +"By no means, it's not at all necessary," said Richardson, dropping with +equal suddenness into his old-world obsequiousness. "I shall certainly +do as you wish. It is not a bad investment, Mr. Mainwaring, and as you +suggest, a very proper return for their kindness. And, being here, it +will come quite naturally for me to take up the affair again." + +"And--I say, Richardson." + +"Yes, sir?" + +"As these ladies are rather short-handed in their domestic service, you +know, perhaps you'd better not stay to luncheon or dinner, but go on to +the Summit House--it's only a mile or two farther--and come back here +this evening. I shan't want you until then." + +"Certainly!" stammered Richardson. "I'll just take leave of the ladies!" + +"It's not at all necessary," said Mainwaring, quietly; "you would only +disturb them in their household duties. I'll tell them what I've done +with you, if they ask. You'll find your stick and hat in the passage, +and you can leave the veranda by these steps. By the way, you had better +manage at the Summit to get some one to bring my traps from here to be +forwarded to Sacramento to-morrow. I'll want a conveyance, or a horse +of some kind, myself, for I've given up walking for a while; but we can +settle about that to-night. Come early. Good morning?" + +He accompanied his thoroughly subjugated countryman--who, however, far +from attempting to reassert himself, actually seemed easier and more +cheerful in his submission--to the end of the veranda, and watched +him depart. As he turned back, he saw the pretty figure of Louise Macy +leaning against the doorway. How graceful and refined she looked in that +simple morning dress! What wonder that she was admired by Greyson, by +Johnson, and by that Spaniard!--no, by Jove, it was SHE that wanted to +marry him! + +"What have you sent away Mr. Richardson for?" asked the young girl, with +a half-reproachful, half-mischievous look in her bright eyes. + +"I packed him off because I thought it was a little too hard on you and +Mrs. Bradley to entertain him without help." + +"But as he was OUR guest, you might have left that to us," said Miss +Macy. + +"By Jove! I never thought of that," said Mainwaring, coloring in +consternation. "Pray forgive me, Miss Macy--but you see I knew the man, +and could say it, and you couldn't." + +"Well, I forgive you, for you look really so cut up," said Louise, +laughing. "But I don't know what Jenny will say of your disposing of her +conquest so summarily." She stopped and regarded him more attentively. +"Has he brought you any bad news? if so, it's a pity you didn't send him +away before. He's quite spoiling our cure." + +Mainwaring thought bitterly that he had. "But it's a cure for all that, +Miss Macy," he said, with an attempt at cheerfulness, "and being a cure, +you see, there's no longer an excuse for my staying here. I have been +making arrangements for leaving here to-morrow." + +"So soon?" + +"Do you think it soon, Miss Macy?" asked Mainwaring, turning pale in +spite of himself. + +"I quite forgot--that you were here as an invalid only, and that we owe +our pleasure to the accident of your pain." + +She spoke a little artificially, he thought, yet her cheeks had not lost +their pink bloom, nor her eyes their tranquillity. Had he heard Minty's +criticism he might have believed that the organic omission noticed by +her was a fact. + +"And now that your good work as Sister of Charity is completed, you'll +be able to enter the world of gayety again with a clear conscience," +said Mainwaring, with a smile that he inwardly felt was a miserable +failure. "You'll be able to resume your morning rides, you know, which +the wretched invalid interrupted." + +Louise raised her clear eyes to his, without reproach, indignation, or +even wonder. He felt as if he had attempted an insult and failed. + +"Does my cousin know you are going so soon?" she asked finally. + +"No, I did not know myself until to-day. You see," he added hastily, +while his honest blood blazoned the lie in his cheek, "I've heard of +some miserable business affairs that will bring me back to England +sooner that I expected." + +"I think you should consider your health more important than any mere +business," said Louise. "I don't mean that you should remain HERE," she +added with a hasty laugh, "but it would be a pity, now that you have +reaped the benefit of rest and taking care of yourself, that you should +not make it your only business to seek it elsewhere." + +Mainwaring longed to say that within the last half hour, living or dying +had become of little moment to him; but he doubted the truth or efficacy +of this timeworn heroic of passion. He felt, too, that anything he said +was a mere subterfuge for the real reason of his sudden departure. And +how was he to question her as to that reason? In escaping from these +subterfuges--he was compelled to lie again. With an assumption of +changing the subject, he said calmly, "Richardson thought he had met you +before--in Menlo Park, I think." + +Amazed at the evident irrelevance of the remark, Louise said coldly, +that she did not remember having seen him before. + +"I think it was at a Mr. Johnson's--or WITH a Mr. Johnson--or perhaps at +one of those Spanish ranches--I think he mentioned some name like Pico!" + +Louise looked at him wonderingly for an instant, and then gave way to +a frank, irrepressible laugh, which lent her delicate but rather set +little face all the color he had missed. Partially relieved by her +unconcern, and yet mortified that he had only provoked her sense of the +ludicrous, he tried to laugh also. + +"Then, to be quite plain," said Louise, wiping her now humid eyes, "you +want me to understand that you really didn't pay sufficient attention +to hear correctly! Thank you; that's a pretty English compliment, I +suppose." + +"I dare say you wouldn't call it 'philandering'?" + +"I certainly shouldn't, for I don't know what 'philandering' means." + +Mainwaring could not reply, with Richelieu, "You ought to know"; nor did +he dare explain what he thought it meant, and how he knew it. Louise, +however, innocently solved the difficulty. + +"There's a country song I've heard Minty sing," she said. "It runs-- + + Come, Philander, let us be a-marchin', + Every one for his true love a-sarchin' + Choose your true love now or never. . . . + +Have you been listening to her also?" + +"No," said Mainwaring, with a sudden incomprehensible, but utterly +irrepressible, resolution; "but I'M 'a-marchin',' you know, and perhaps +I must 'choose my true love now or never.' Will you help me, Miss Macy?" + +He drew gently near her. He had become quite white, but also very manly, +and it struck her, more deeply, thoroughly, and conscientiously sincere +than any man who had before addressed her. She moved slightly away, as +if to rest herself by laying both hands upon the back of the chair. + +"Where do you expect to begin your 'sarchin''?" she said, leaning on +the chair and tilting it before her; "or are you as vague as usual as to +locality? Is it at some 'Mr. Johnson' or 'Mr. Pico,' or--" + +"Here," he interrupted boldly. + +"I really think you ought to first tell my cousin that you are going +away to-morrow," she said, with a faint smile. "It's such short notice. +She's just in there." She nodded her pretty head, without raising her +eyes, towards the hall. + +"But it may not be so soon," said Mainwaring. + +"Oh, then the 'sarchin'' is not so important?" said Louise, raising +her head, and looking towards the hall with some uneasy but indefinable +feminine instinct. + +She was right; the sitting-room door opened, and Mrs. Bradley made her +smiling appearance. + +"Mr. Mainwaring was just looking for you," said Louise, for the first +time raising her eyes to him. "He's not only sent off Mr. Richardson, +but he's going away himself to-morrow." + +Mrs. Bradley looked from the one to the other in mute wonder. Mainwaring +cast an imploring glance at Louise, which had the desired effect. Much +more seriously, and in a quaint, business-like way, the young girl took +it upon herself to explain to Mrs. Bradley that Richardson had brought +the invalid some important news that would, unfortunately, not only +shorten his stay in America, but even compel him to leave The Lookout +sooner than he expected, perhaps to-morrow. Mainwaring thanked her with +his eyes, and then turned to Mrs. Bradley. + +"Whether I go to-morrow or next day," he said with simple and earnest +directness, "I intend, you know, to see you soon again, either here or +in my own home in England. I do not know," he added with marked gravity, +"that I have succeeded in convincing you that I have made your family +already well known to my people, and that"--he fixed his eyes with a +meaning look on Louise--"no matter when, or in what way, you come to +them, your place is made ready for you. You may not like them, you know: +the governor is getting to be an old man--perhaps too old for young +Americans--but THEY will like YOU, and you must put up with that. My +mother and sisters know Miss Macy as well as I do, and will make her one +of the family." + +The conscientious earnestness with which these apparent +conventionalities were uttered, and some occult quality of quiet +conviction in the young man's manner, brought a pleasant sparkle to the +eyes of Mrs. Bradley and Louise. + +"But," said Mrs. Bradley, gayly, "our going to England is quite beyond +our present wildest dreams; nothing but a windfall, an unexpected +rise in timber, or even the tabooed hotel speculation, could make it +possible." + +"But I shall take the liberty of trying to present it to Mr. Bradley +tonight in some practical way that may convince even his critical +judgment," said Mainwaring, still seriously. "It will be," he added more +lightly, "the famous testimonial of my cure which I promised you." + +"And you will find Mr. Bradley so sceptical that you will be obliged to +defer your going," said Mrs. Bradley, triumphantly. "Come, Louise, we +must not forget that we have still Mr. Mainwaring's present comfort to +look after; that Minty has basely deserted us, and that we ourselves +must see that the last days of our guest beneath our roof are not +remembered for their privation." + +She led Louise away with a half-mischievous suggestion of maternal +propriety, and left Mainwaring once more alone on the veranda. + +He had done it! Certainly she must have understood his meaning, and +there was nothing left for him to do but to acquaint Bradley with his +intentions to-night, and press her for a final answer in the morning. +There would be no indelicacy then in asking her for an interview more +free from interruption than this public veranda. Without conceit, he +did not doubt what the answer would be. His indecision, his sudden +resolution to leave her, had been all based upon the uncertainty of HIS +own feelings, the propriety of HIS declaration, the possibility of some +previous experience of hers that might compromise HIM. Convinced by +her unembarrassed manner of her innocence, or rather satisfied of her +indifference to Richardson's gossip, he had been hurried by his feelings +into an unexpected avowal. Brought up in the perfect security of his +own social position, and familiarly conscious--without vanity--of +its importance and power in such a situation, he believed, without +undervaluing Louise's charms or independence, that he had no one else +than himself to consult. Even the slight uneasiness that still pursued +him was more due to his habitual conscientiousness of his own intention +than to any fear that she would not fully respond to it. Indeed, with +his conservative ideas of proper feminine self-restraint, Louise's calm +passivity and undemonstrative attitude were a proof of her superiority; +had she blushed overmuch, cried, or thrown herself into his arms, he +would have doubted the wisdom of so easy a selection. It was true he had +known her scarcely three weeks; if he chose to be content with that, his +own accessible record of three centuries should be sufficient for her, +and condone any irregularity. + +Nevertheless, as an hour slipped away and Louise did not make her +appearance, either on the veranda or in the little sitting-room off the +hall, Mainwaring became more uneasy as to the incompleteness of their +interview. Perhaps a faint suspicion of the inadequacy of her response +began to trouble him; but he still fatuously regarded it rather as +owing to his own hurried and unfinished declaration. It was true that +he hadn't said half what he intended to say; it was true that she might +have misunderstood it as the conventional gallantry of the situation, +as--terrible thought!--the light banter of the habitual love-making +American, to which she had been accustomed; perhaps even now she +relegated him to the level of Greyson, and this accounted for her +singular impassiveness--an impassiveness that certainly was singular +now he reflected upon it--that might have been even contempt. The last +thought pricked his deep conscientiousness; he walked hurriedly up and +down the veranda, and then, suddenly re-entering his room, took up a +sheet of note-paper, and began to write to her:-- + + +"Can you grant me a few moments' interview alone? I cannot bear you +should think that what I was trying to tell you when we were interrupted +was prompted by anything but the deepest sincerity and conviction, +or that I am willing it should be passed over lightly by you or be +forgotten. Pray give me a chance of proving it, by saying you will see +me. F. M." + + +But how should he convey this to her? His delicacy revolted against +handing it to her behind Mrs. Bradley's back, or the prestidigitation of +slipping it into her lap or under her plate before them at luncheon; he +thought for an instant of the Chinaman, but gentlemen--except in that +"mirror of nature" the stage--usually hesitate to suborn other people's +servants, or entrust a woman's secret to her inferiors. He remembered +that Louise's room was at the farther end of the house, and its low +window gave upon the veranda, and was guarded at night by a film of +white and blue curtains that were parted during the day, to allow +a triangular revelation of a pale blue and white draped interior. +Mainwaring reflected that the low inside window ledge was easily +accessible from the veranda, would afford a capital lodgment for the +note, and be quickly seen by the fair occupant of the room on entering. +He sauntered slowly past the window; the room was empty, the moment +propitious. A slight breeze was stirring the blue ribbons of the +curtain; it would be necessary to secure the note with something; he +returned along the veranda to the steps, where he had noticed a small +irregular stone lying, which had evidently escaped from Richelieu's bag +of treasure specimens, and had been overlooked by that ingenuous child. +It was of a pretty peacock-blue color, and, besides securing a paper, +would be sure to attract her attention. He placed his note on the inside +ledge, and the blue stone atop, and went away with a sense of relief. + +Another half hour passed without incident. He could hear the voices +of the two women in the kitchen and dining-room. After a while they +appeared to cease, and he heard the sound of an opening door. It +then occurred to him that the veranda was still too exposed for a +confidential interview, and he resolved to descend the steps, pass +before the windows of the kitchen where Louise might see him, and +penetrate the shrubbery, where she might be induced to follow him. They +would not be interrupted nor overheard there. + +But he had barely left the veranda before the figure of Richelieu, +who had been patiently waiting for Mainwaring's disappearance, emerged +stealthily from the shrubbery. He had discovered his loss on handing his +"fire assays" to the good-humored Bradley for later examination, and he +had retraced his way, step by step, looking everywhere for his missing +stone with the unbounded hopefulness, lazy persistency, and lofty +disregard for time and occupation known only to the genuine boy. +He remembered to have placed his knotted bag upon the veranda, and, +slipping off his stiff boots slowly and softly, slid along against the +wall of the house, looking carefully on the floor, and yet preserving +a studied negligence of demeanor, with one hand in his pocket, and his +small mouth contracted into a singularly soothing and almost voiceless +whistle--Richelieu's own peculiar accomplishment. But no stone appeared. +Like most of his genus he was superstitious, and repeated to himself the +cabalistic formula: "Losin's seekin's, findin's keepin's"--presumed +to be of great efficacy in such cases--with religious fervor. He had +laboriously reached the end of the veranda when he noticed the open +window of Louise's room, and stopped as a perfunctory duty to look in. +And then Richelieu Sharpe stood for an instant utterly confounded and +aghast at this crowning proof of the absolute infamy and sickening +enormity of Man. + +There was HIS stone--HIS, RICHELIEU'S, OWN SPECIMEN, carefully gathered +by himself and none other--and now stolen, abstracted, "skyugled," +"smouged," "hooked" by this "rotten, skunkified, long-legged, +splay-footed, hoss-laughin', nigger-toothed, or'nary despot" And, +worse than all, actually made to do infamous duty as a "love token"--a +"candy-gift!"--a "philanderin' box" to HIS, Richelieu's, girl--for +Louise belonged to that innocent and vague outside seraglio of +Richelieu's boyish dreams--and put atop of a letter to her! and +Providence permitted such an outrage! "Wot was he, Richelieu, sent to +school for, and organized wickedness in the shape of gorilla Injins like +this allowed to ride high horses rampant over Californey!" He looked +at the heavens in mute appeal. And then--Providence not immediately +interfering--he thrust his own small arm into the window, regained his +priceless treasure, and fled swiftly. + +A fateful silence ensued. The wind slightly moved the curtain outward, +as if in a playful attempt to follow him, and then subsided. A moment +later, apparently re-enforced by other winds, or sympathizing with +Richelieu, it lightly lifted the unlucky missive and cast it softly from +the window. But here another wind, lying in wait, caught it cleverly, +and tossed it, in a long curve, into the abyss. For an instant it seemed +to float lazily, as on the mirrored surface of a lake, until, turning +upon its side, it suddenly darted into utter oblivion. + +When Mainwaring returned from the shrubbery, he went softly to the +window. The disappearance of the letter and stone satisfied him of the +success of his stratagem, and for the space of three hours relieved his +anxiety. But at the end of that time, finding no response from Louise, +his former uneasiness returned. Was she offended, or--the first doubt of +her acceptance of him crossed his mind! + +A sudden and inexplicable sense of shame came upon him. At the same +moment, he heard his name called from the steps, turned--and beheld +Minty. + +Her dark eyes were shining with a pleasant light, and her lips parted on +her white teeth with a frank, happy smile. She advanced and held out her +hand. He took it with a mingling of disappointment and embarrassment. + +"You're wondering why I kem on here, arter I sent word this morning that +I kelkilated not to come. Well, 'twixt then and now suthin' 's happened. +We've had fine doin's over at our house, you bet! Pop don't know which +end he's standin' on; and I reckon that for about ten minutes I didn't +know my own name. But ez soon ez I got fairly hold o' the hull thing, +and had it put straight in my mind, I sez to myself, Minty Sharpe, sez +I, the first thing for you to do now, is to put on yer bonnet and shawl, +and trapse over to Jim Bradley's and help them two womenfolks get dinner +for themselves and that sick stranger. And," continued Minty, throwing +herself into a chair and fanning her glowing face with her apron, "yer I +am!" + +"But you have not told me WHAT has happened," said Mainwaring, with a +constrained smile, and an uneasy glance towards the house. + +"That's so," said Minty, with a brilliant laugh. "I clean forgot the +hull gist of the thing. Well, we're rich folks now--over thar' on Barren +Ledge! That onery brother of mine, Richelieu, hez taken some of his +specimens over to Jim Bradley to be tested. And Bradley, just to please +that child, takes 'em; and not an hour ago Bradley comes running, likety +switch, over to Pop to tell him to put up his notices, for the hull of +that ledge where the forge stands is a mine o' silver and copper. Afore +ye knew it, Lordy! half the folks outer the Summit and the mill was +scattered down thar all over it. Richardson--that stranger ez knows +you--kem thar too with Jim, and he allows, ef Bradley's essay is right, +it's worth more than a hundred thousand dollars ez it stands!" + +"I suppose I must congratulate you, Miss Sharpe," said Mainwaring with +an attempt at interest, but his attention still preoccupied with the +open doorway. + +"Oh, THEY know all about it!" said Minty, following the direction of his +abstracted eyes with a slight darkening of her own, "I jest kem out o' +the kitchen the other way, and Jim sent 'em a note; but I allowed I'd +tell YOU myself. Specially ez you are going away to-morrow." + +"Who said I was going away to-morrow?" asked Mainwaring, uneasily. + +"Loo Macy!" + +"Ah--she did? But I may change my mind, you know!" he continued, with a +faint smile. + +Minty shook her curls decisively. "I reckon SHE knows," she said dryly, +"she's got law and gospel for wot she says. But yer she comes. Ask her! +Look yer, Loo," she added, as the two women appeared at the doorway, +with a certain exaggeration of congratulatory manner that struck +Mainwaring as being as artificial and disturbed as his own, "didn't Sir +Francis yer say he was going to-morrow?" + +"That's what I understood!" returned Louise, with cold astonishment, +letting her clear indifferent eyes fall upon Mainwaring. "I do not know +that he has changed his mind." + +"Unless, as Miss Sharpe is a great capitalist now, she is willing to use +her powers of persuasion," added Mrs. Bradley, with a slight acidulous +pointing of her usual prim playfulness. + +"I reckon Minty Sharpe's the same ez she allus wos, unless more so," +returned Minty, with an honest egotism that carried so much conviction +to the hearer as to condone its vanity. "But I kem yer to do a day's +work, gals, and I allow to pitch in and do it, and not sit yer swoppin' +compliments and keeping HIM from packin' his duds. Onless," she stopped, +and looked around at the uneasy, unsympathetic circle with a faint +tremulousness of lip that belied the brave black eyes above it, "onless +I'm in yer way." + +The two women sprang forward with a feminine bewildering excess of +protestation; and Mainwaring, suddenly pierced through his outer selfish +embarrassment to his more honest depths, stammered quickly-- + +"Look here, Miss Sharpe, if you think of running away again, after +having come all the way here to make us share the knowledge of your good +fortune and your better heart, by Jove! I'll go back with you." + +But here the two women effusively hurried her away from the dangerous +proximity of such sympathetic honesty, and a moment later Mainwaring +heard her laughing voice, as of old, ringing in the kitchen. And then, +as if unconsciously responding to the significant common sense that lay +in her last allusion to him, he went to his room and grimly began his +packing. + +He did not again see Louise alone. At their informal luncheon the +conversation turned upon the more absorbing topic of the Sharpes' +discovery, its extent, and its probable effect upon the fortunes of +the locality. He noticed, abstractedly, that both Mrs. Bradley and her +cousin showed a real or assumed scepticism of its value. This did +not disturb him greatly, except for its intended check upon Minty's +enthusiasm. He was more conscious, perhaps,--with a faint touch of +mortified vanity,--that his own contemplated departure was of lesser +importance than this local excitement. Yet in his growing conviction +that all was over--if, indeed, it had ever begun--between himself and +Louise, he was grateful to this natural diversion of incident which +spared them both an interval of embarrassing commonplaces. And, with +the suspicion of some indefinable insincerity--either of his own or +Louise's--haunting him, Minty's frank heartiness and outspoken loyalty +gave him a strange relief. It seemed to him as if the clear cool breath +of the forest had entered with her homely garments, and the steadfast +truth of Nature were incarnate in her shining eyes. How far this poetic +fancy would have been consistent or even coexistent with any gleam of +tenderness or self-forgetfulness in Louise's equally pretty orbs, I +leave the satirical feminine reader to determine. + +It was late when Bradley at last returned, bringing further and more +complete corroboration of the truth of Sharpe's good fortune. Two +experts had arrived, one from Pine Flat and another from the Summit, and +upon this statement Richardson had offered to purchase an interest in +the discovery that would at once enable the blacksmith to develop his +mine. "I shouldn't wonder, Mainwaring," he added cheerfully, "if he'd +put you into it, too, and make your eternal fortune." + +"With larks falling from the skies all round you, it's a pity YOU +couldn't get put into something," said Mrs. Bradley, straightening her +pretty brows. + +"I'm not a gold-miner, my dear," said Bradley, pleasantly. + +"Nor a gold-finder," returned his wife, with a cruel little depression +of her pink nostrils, "but you can work all night in that stupid mill +and then," she added in a low voice, to escape Minty's attention, "spend +the whole of the next day examining and following up a boy's discovery +that his own relations had been too lazy and too ignorant to understand +and profit by. I suppose that next you will be hunting up a site on the +OTHER SIDE of the Canyon, where somebody else can put up a hotel and +ruin your own prospects." + +A sensitive shadow of pain quickly dimmed Bradley's glance--not the +first or last time evidently, for it was gradually bringing out a +background of sadness in his intelligent eyes. But the next moment he +turned kindly to Mainwaring, and began to deplore the necessity of his +early departure, which Richardson had already made known to him with +practical and satisfying reasons. + +"I hope you won't forget, my dear fellow, that your most really urgent +business is to look after your health; and if, hereafter, you'll only +remember the old Lookout enough to impress that fact upon you, I shall +feel that any poor service I have rendered you has been amply repaid." + +Mainwaring, notwithstanding that he winced slightly at this fateful +echo of Louise's advice, returned the grasp of his friend's hand with an +honest pressure equal to his own. He longed now only for the coming of +Richardson, to complete his scheme of grateful benefaction to his host. + +The banker came fortunately as the conversation began to flag; and Mrs. +Bradley's half-coquettish ill-humor of a pretty woman, and Louise's +abstracted indifference, were becoming so noticeable as to even impress +Minty into a thoughtful taciturnity. The graciousness of his reception +by Mrs. Bradley somewhat restored his former ostentatious gallantry, and +his self-satisfied, domineering manner had enough masculine power in it +to favorably affect the three women, who, it must be confessed, were a +little bored by the finer abstractions of Bradley and Mainwaring. +After a few moments, Mainwaring rose and, with a significant glance at +Richardson to remind him of his proposed conference with Bradley, turned +to leave the room. He was obliged to pass Louise, who was sitting by the +table. His attention was suddenly arrested by something in her hand with +which she was listlessly playing. It was the stone which he had put on +his letter to her. + +As he had not been present when Bradley arrived, he did not know that +this fateful object had been brought home by his host, who, after +receiving it from Richelieu, had put it in his pocket to illustrate +his story of the discovery. On the contrary, it seemed that Louise's +careless exposure of his foolish stratagem was gratuitously and +purposely cruel. Nevertheless, he stopped and looked at her. + +"That's a queer stone you have there," he said, in a tone which she +recognized as coldly and ostentatiously civil. + +"Yes," she replied, without looking up; "it's the outcrop of that mine." +She handed it to him as if to obviate any further remark. "I thought you +had seen it before." + +"The outcrop," he repeated dryly. "That is--it--it--it is the indication +or sign of something important that's below it--isn't it?" + +Louise shrugged her shoulders sceptically. "It don't follow. It's just +as likely to cover rubbish, after you've taken the trouble to look." + +"Thanks," he said, with measured gentleness, and passed quietly out of +the room. + +The moon had already risen when Bradley, with his brierwood pipe, +preceded Richardson upon the veranda. The latter threw his large frame +into Louise's rocking-chair near the edge of the abyss; Bradley, with +his own chair tilted against the side of the house after the national +fashion, waited for him to speak. The absence of Mainwaring and the +stimulus of Mrs. Bradley's graciousness had given the banker a certain +condescending familiarity, which Bradley received with amused and +ironical tolerance that his twinkling eyes made partly visible in the +darkness. + +"One of the things I wanted to talk to you about, Bradley, was that old +affair of the advance you asked for from the Bank. We did not quite see +our way to it then, and, speaking as a business man, it isn't really a +matter of business now; but it has lately been put to me in a light that +would make the doing of it possible--you understand? The fact of the +matter is this: Sir Robert Mainwaring, the father of the young +fellow you've got in your house, is one of our directors and +largest shareholders, and I can tell you--if you don't suspect it +already--you've been lucky, Bradley--deucedly lucky--to have had him in +your house and to have rendered him a service. He's the heir to one +of the largest landed estates in his country, one of the oldest county +families, and will step into the title some day. But, ahem!" he coughed +patronizingly, "you knew all that! No? Well, that charming wife of +yours, at least, does; for she's been talking about it. Gad, Bradley, it +takes those women to find out anything of that kind, eh?" + +The light in Bradley's eyes and his pipe went slowly out together. + +"Then we'll say that affair of the advance is as good as settled. It's +Sir Robert's wish, you understand, and this young fellow's wish,--and if +you'll come down to the Bank next week we'll arrange it for you; I +think you'll admit they're doing the handsome to you and yours. And +therefore," he lowered his voice confidentially, "you'll see, Bradley, +that it will only be the honorable thing in you, you know, to look upon +the affair as finished, and, in fact, to do all you can"--he drew his +chair closer--"to--to--to drop this other foolishness." + +"I don't think I quite understand you!" said Bradley, slowly. + +"But your wife does, if you don't," returned Richardson, bluntly; "I +mean this foolish flirtation between Louise Macy and Mainwaring, which +is utterly preposterous. Why, man, it can't possibly come to anything, +and it couldn't be allowed for a moment. Look at his position and hers. +I should think, as a practical man, it would strike you--" + +"Only one thing strikes me, Richardson," interrupted Bradley, in a +singularly distinct whisper, rising, and moving nearer the speaker; "it +is that you're sitting perilously near the edge of this veranda. For, by +the living God, if you don't take yourself out of that chair and out of +this house, I won't be answerable for the consequences!" + +"Hold on there a minute, will you?" said Mainwaring's voice from the +window. + +Both men turned towards it. A long leg was protruding from Mainwaring's +window; it was quickly followed by the other leg and body of the +occupant, and the next moment Mainwaring come towards the two men, with +his hands in his pockets. + +"Not so loud," he said, looking towards the house. + +"Let that man go," said Bradley, in a repressed voice. "You and I, +Mainwaring, can speak together afterwards." + +"That man must stay until he hears what I have got to say," said +Mainwaring, stepping between them. He was very white and grave in +the moonlight, but very quiet; and he did not take his hands from his +pockets. "I've listened to what he said because he came here on MY +business, which was simply to offer to do you a service. That was all, +Bradley, that I told him to do. This rot about what he expects of you in +return is his own impertinence. If you'd punched his head when he began +it, it would have been all right. But since he has begun it, before he +goes I think he ought to hear me tell you that I have already OFFERED +myself to Miss Macy, and she has REFUSED me! If she had given me the +least encouragement, I should have told you before. Further, I want to +say that, in spite of that man's insinuations, I firmly believe that no +one is aware of the circumstance except Miss Macy and myself." + +"I had no idea of intimating that anything had happened that was not +highly honorable and creditable to you and the young lady," began +Richardson hurriedly. + +"I don't know that it was necessary for you to have any ideas on the +subject at all," said Mainwaring, sternly; "nor that, having been shown +how you have insulted this gentleman and myself, you need trouble us an +instant longer with your company. You need not come back. I will manage +my other affairs myself." + +"Very well, Mr. Mainwaring--but--you may be sure that I shall certainly +take the first opportunity to explain myself to Sir Robert," returned +Richardson as, with an attempt at dignity, he strode away. + +There was an interval of silence. + +"Don't be too hard upon a fellow, Bradley," said Mainwaring as Bradley +remained dark and motionless in the shadow. "It is a poor return I'm +making you for your kindness, but I swear I never thought of anything +like--like--this." + +"Nor did I," said Bradley, bitterly. + +"I know it, and that's what makes it so infernally bad for me. Forgive +me, won't you? Think of me, old fellow, as the wretchedest ass you ever +met, but not such a cad as this would make me!" As Mainwaring stepped +out from the moonlight towards him with extended hand, Bradley grasped +it warmly. + +"Thanks--there--thanks, old fellow! And, Bradley--I say--don't +say anything to your wife, for I don't think she knows it. And, +Bradley--look here--I didn't like to be anything but plain before that +fellow; but I don't mind telling YOU, now that it's all over, that I +really think Louise--Miss Macy--didn't altogether understand me either." + +With another shake of the hand they separated for the night. For a long +time after Mainwaring had gone, Bradley remained gazing thoughtfully +into the Great Canyon. He thought of the time when he had first come +there, full of life and enthusiasm, making an ideal world of his pure +and wholesome eyrie on the ledge. What else he thought will, probably, +never be known until the misunderstanding of honorable and chivalrous +men by a charming and illogical sex shall incite the audacious pen of +some more daring romancer. + +When he returned to the house, he said kindly to his wife, "I have been +thinking to-day about your hotel scheme, and I shall write to Sacramento +to-night to accept that capitalist's offer." + + + + +CHAPER V. + + +The sun was just rising. In two years of mutation and change it had seen +the little cottage clinging like a swallow's nest to the rocky caves of +a great Sierran canyon give way to a straggling, many-galleried hotel, +and a dozen blackened chimneys rise above the barren tableland where +once had stood the lonely forge. To that conservative orb of light and +heat there must have been a peculiar satisfaction in looking down a few +hours earlier upon the battlements and gables of Oldenhurst, whose base +was deeply embedded in the matured foundations and settled traditions +of an English county. For the rising sun had for ten centuries found +Oldenhurst in its place, from the heavy stone terrace that covered the +dead-and-forgotten wall, where a Roman sentinel had once paced, to +the little grating in the cloistered quadrangle, where it had seen a +Cistercian brother place the morning dole. It had daily welcomed the +growth of this vast and picturesque excrescence of the times; it had +smiled every morning upon this formidable yet quaint incrustation +of power and custom, ignoring, as Oldenhurst itself had ignored, the +generations who possessed it, the men who built it, the men who carried +it with fire and sword, the men who had lied and cringed for it, the +King who had given it to a favorite, the few brave hearts who had died +for it in exile, and the one or two who had bought and paid for it. For +Oldenhurst had absorbed all these and more until it had become a story +of the past, incarnate in stone, greenwood, and flower; it had even +drained the life-blood from adjacent hamlets, repaying them with tumuli +growths like its own, in the shape of purposeless lodges, quaintly +incompetent hospitals and schools, and churches where the inestimable +blessing and knowledge of its gospel were taught and fostered. Nor had +it dealt more kindly with the gentry within its walls, sending some to +the scaffold, pillorying others in infamous office, reducing a few to +poverty, and halting its later guests with gout and paralysis. It had +given them in exchange the dubious immortality of a portrait gallery, +from which they stared with stony and equal resignation; it had +preserved their useless armor and accoutrements; it had set up their +marble effigies in churches or laid them in cross-legged attitudes to +trip up the unwary, until in death, as in life, they got between the +congregation and the Truth that was taught there. It had allowed an +Oldenhurst crusader, with a broken nose like a pugilist, on the strength +of his having been twice to the Holy Land, to hide the beautifully +illuminated Word from the lowlier worshipper on the humbler benches; it +had sent an iconoclastic Bishop of the Reformation to a nearer minster +to ostentatiously occupy the place of the consecrated image he had +overthrown. Small wonder that crowding the Oldenhurst retainers +gradually into smaller space, with occasional Sabbath glimpses of the +living rulers of Oldenhurst already in railed-off exaltation, it had +forced them to accept Oldenhurst as a synonym of eternity, and left the +knowledge of a higher Power to what time they should be turned out +to their longer sleep under the tender grass of the beautiful outer +churchyard. + +And even so, while every stone of the pile of Oldenhurst and every tree +in its leafy park might have been eloquent with the story of vanity, +selfishness, and unequal justice, it had been left to the infinite mercy +of Nature to seal their lips with a spell of beauty that left mankind +equally dumb; earth, air, and moisture had entered into a gentle +conspiracy to soften, mellow, and clothe its external blemishes of +breach and accident, its irregular design, its additions, accretions, +ruins, and lapses with a harmonious charm of outline and color; poets, +romancers, and historians had equally conspired to illuminate the +dark passages and uglier inconsistencies of its interior life with the +glamour of their own fancy. The fragment of menacing keep, with its +choked oubliettes, became a bower of tender ivy; the grim story of its +crimes, properly edited by a contemporary bard of the family, passed +into a charming ballad. Even the superstitious darkness of its religious +house had escaped through fallen roof and shattered wall, leaving only +the foliated and sun-pierced screen of front, with its rose-window and +pinnacle of cross behind. Pilgrims from all lands had come to see +it; fierce Republicans had crossed the seas to gaze at its mediaeval +outlines, and copy them in wood and stucco on their younger soil. +Politicians had equally pointed to it as a convincing evidence of their +own principles and in refutation of each other; and it had survived +both. For it was this belief in its own perpetuity that was its strength +and weakness. And that belief was never stronger than on this bright +August morning, when it was on the verge of dissolution. A telegram +brought to Sir Robert Mainwaring had even then as completely shattered +and disintegrated Oldenhurst, in all it was and all it meant, as if the +brown-paper envelope had been itself charged with the electric fluid. + +Sir Robert Mainwaring, whose family had for three centuries possessed +Oldenhurst, had received the news of his financial ruin; and the vast +pile which had survived the repeated invasion of superstition, force, +intrigue, and even progress, had succumbed to a foe its founders and +proprietors had loftily ignored and left to Jews and traders. The +acquisition of money, except by despoilment, gift, royal favor, or +inheritance, had been unknown at Oldenhurst. The present degenerate +custodian of its fortunes, staggering under the weight of its +sentimental mortmain already alluded to, had speculated in order to +keep up its material strength, that was gradually shrinking through +impoverished land and the ruined trade it had despised. He had invested +largely in California mines, and was the chief shareholder in a San +Francisco Bank. But the mines had proved worthless, the Bank had that +morning suspended payment, owing to the failure of a large land and +timber company on the Sierras which it had imprudently "carried." +The spark which had demolished Oldenhurst had been fired from the new +telegraph-station in the hotel above the great Sierran canyon. + +There was a large house-party at Oldenhurst that morning. But it had +been a part of the history of the Mainwarings to accept defeat gallantly +and as became their blood. Sir Percival,--the second gentleman on the +left as you entered the library,--unhorsed, dying on a distant moor, +with a handful of followers, abandoned by a charming Prince and a +miserable cause, was scarcely a greater hero than this ruined but +undaunted gentleman of eighty, entering the breakfast-room a few +hours later as jauntily as his gout would permit, and conscientiously +dispensing the hospitalities of his crumbling house. When he had +arranged a few pleasure parties for the day and himself thoughtfully +anticipated the different tastes of his guests, he turned to Lady +Mainwaring. + +"Don't forget that somebody ought to go to the station to meet the +Bradleys. Frank writes from St. Moritz that they are due here to-day." + +Lady Mainwaring glanced quickly at her husband, and said sotto voce, "Do +you think they'll care to come NOW? They probably have heard all about +it." + +"Not how it affects me," returned Sir Robert, in the same tone; "and +as they might think that because Frank was with them on that California +mountain we would believe it had something to do with Richardson +involving the Bank in that wretched company, we must really INSIST upon +their coming." + +"Bradley!" echoed the Hon. Captain FitzHarry, overhearing the name +during a late forage on the sideboard, "Bradley!--there was an awfully +pretty American at Biarritz, travelling with a cousin, I think--a Miss +Mason or Macy. Those sort of people, you know, who have a companion +as pretty as themselves; bring you down with the other barrel if one +misses--eh? Very clever, both of them, and hardly any accent." + +"Mr. Bradley was a very dear friend of Frank's, and most kind to him," +said Lady Mainwaring, gravely. + +"Didn't know there WAS a Mr. Bradley, really. He didn't come to the +fore, then," said the unabashed Captain. "Deuced hard to follow up those +American husbands!" + +"And their wives wouldn't thank you, if you did," said Lady Griselda +Armiger, with a sweet smile. + +"If it is the Mrs. Bradley I mean," said Lady Canterbridge from the +lower end of the table, looking up from her letter, "who looks a little +like Mrs. Summertree, and has a pretty cousin with her who has very good +frocks, I'm afraid you won't be able to get her down here. She's booked +with engagements for the next six weeks. She and her cousin made all the +running at Grigsby Royal, and she has quite deposed that other American +beauty in Northforeland's good graces. She regularly affiche'd him, and +it is piteous to see him follow her about. No, my dear; I don't believe +they'll come to any one of less rank than a Marquis. If they did, I'm +sure Canterbridge would have had them at Buckenthorpe already." + +"I wonder if there was ever anything in Frank's admiration of this Miss +Macy?" said Lady Mainwaring a few moments later, lingering beside her +husband in his study. + +"I really don't know," said Sir Robert, abstractedly: "his letters were +filled with her praises, and Richardson thought--" + +"Pray don't mention that man's name again," said Lady Mainwaring, with +the first indication of feeling she had shown. "I shouldn't trust him." + +"But why do you ask?" returned her husband. + +Lady Mainwaring was silent for a moment. "She is very rich, I believe," +she said slowly. "At least, Frank writes that some neighbors of theirs +whom he met in the Engadine told him they had sold the site of that +absurd cottage where he was ill for some extravagant sum." + +"My dear Geraldine," said the old man, affectionately, taking his wife's +hand in his own, that now for the first time trembled, "if you have any +hope based upon what you are thinking of now, let it be the last and +least. You forget that Paget told us that with the best care he could +scarcely ensure Frank's return to perfect health. Even if God in his +mercy spared him long enough to take my place, what girl would be +willing to tie herself to a man doomed to sickness and poverty? Hardly +the one you speak of, my dear." + +Lady Canterbridge proved a true prophet. Mrs. Bradley and Miss Macy +did not come, regretfully alleging a previous engagement made on the +continent with the Duke of Northforeland and the Marquis of Dungeness; +but the unexpected and apocryphal husband DID arrive. "I myself have not +seen my wife and cousin since I returned from my visit to your son +in Switzerland. I am glad they were able to amuse themselves without +waiting for me at a London hotel, though I should have preferred to +have met them here." Sir Robert and Lady Mainwaring were courteous but +slightly embarrassed. Lady Canterbridge, who had come to the station in +bored curiosity, raised her clear blue eyes to his. He did not look like +a fool, a complaisant or fashionably-cynical husband--this well-dressed, +well-mannered, but quietly and sympathetically observant man. Did he +really care for his selfish wife? was it perfect trust or some absurd +Transatlantic custom? She did not understand him. It wearied her and she +turned her eyes indifferently away. Bradley, a little irritated, he knew +not why, at the scrutiny of this tall, handsome, gentlemanly-looking +woman, who, however, in spite of her broad shoulders and narrow hips +possessed a refined muliebrity superior to mere womanliness of outline, +turned slightly towards Sir Robert. "Lady Canterbridge, Frank's cousin," +explained Sir Robert, hesitatingly, as if conscious of some vague +awkwardness. Bradley and Lady Canterbridge both bowed,--possibly the +latter's salutation was the most masculine,--and Bradley, eventually +forgetting her presence, plunged into an earnest, sympathetic, and +intelligent account of the condition in which he found the invalid at +St. Moritz. The old man at first listened with an almost perfunctory +courtesy and a hesitating reserve; but as Bradley was lapsing into +equal reserve and they drove up to the gates of the quadrangle, he +unexpectedly warmed with a word or two of serious welcome. Looking up +with a half-unconscious smile, Bradley met Lady Canterbridge's examining +eyes. + +The next morning, finding an opportunity to be alone with him, Bradley, +with a tactful mingling of sympathy and directness informed his host +that he was cognizant of the disaster that had overtaken the Bank, and +delicately begged him to accept any service he could render him. "Pardon +me," he said, "if I speak as plainly to you as I would to your son: my +friendship for him justifies an equal frankness to any one he loves; but +I should not intrude upon your confidence if I did not believe that my +knowledge and assistance might be of benefit to you. Although I did not +sell my lands to Richardson or approve of his methods," he continued, "I +fear it was some suggestion of mine that eventually induced him to form +the larger and more disastrous scheme that ruined the Bank. So you see," +he added lightly, "I claim a right to offer you my services." Touched +by Bradley's sincerity and discreet intelligence, Sir Robert was equally +frank. During the recital of his Californian investments--a chronicle +of almost fatuous speculation and imbecile enterprise--Bradley was +profoundly moved at the naive ignorance of business and hopeless +ingenuousness of this old habitue of a cynical world and an intriguing +and insincere society, to whom no scheme had been too wild for +acceptance. As Bradley listened with a half-saddened smile to the grave +visions of this aged enthusiast, he remembered the son's unsophisticated +simplicity: what he had considered as the "boyishness" of immaturity was +the taint of the utterly unpractical Mainwaring blood. It was upon this +blood, and others like it, that Oldenhurst had for centuries waxed and +fattened. + +Bradley was true to his promise of assistance, and with the aid of two +or three of his brother-millionaires, whose knowledge of the resources +of the locality was no less powerful and convincing than the security +of their actual wealth, managed to stay the immediate action of the +catastrophe until the affairs of the Sierran Land and Timber Company +could be examined and some plan of reconstruction arranged. + +During this interval of five months, in which the credit of Sir Robert +Mainwaring was preserved with the secret of his disaster, Bradley was a +frequent and welcome visitor to Oldenhurst. Apart from his strange and +chivalrous friendship for the Mainwarings--which was as incomprehensible +to Sir Robert as Sir Robert's equally eccentric and Quixotic +speculations had been to Bradley--he began to feel a singular and weird +fascination for the place. A patient martyr in the vast London house he +had taken for his wife and cousin's amusement, he loved to escape the +loneliness of its autumn solitude or the occasional greater loneliness +of his wife's social triumphs. The handsome, thoughtful man who +sometimes appeared at the foot of his wife's table or melted away like +a well-bred ghost in the hollow emptiness of her brilliant receptions, +piqued the languid curiosity of a few. A distinguished personage, known +for his tactful observance of convenances that others forgot, had made a +point of challenging this gentlemanly apparition, and had followed it up +with courteous civilities, which led to exchange of much respect but no +increase of acquaintance. He had even spent a week at Buckenthorpe, with +Canterbridge in the coverts and Lady Canterbridge in the music-room and +library. He had returned more thoughtful, and for some time after +was more frequent in his appearances at home, and more earnest in his +renewed efforts to induce his wife to return to America with him. + +"You'll never be happy anywhere but in California, among those common +people," she replied; "and while I was willing to share your poverty +THERE," she added dryly, "I prefer to share your wealth among civilized +ladies and gentlemen. Besides," she continued, "we must consider Louise. +She is as good as engaged to Lord Dunshunner, and I do not intend that +you shall make a mess of her affairs here as you did in California." + +It was the first time he had heard of Lord Dunshunner's proposals; it +was the first allusion she had ever made to Louise and Mainwaring. + +Meantime, the autumn leaves had fallen silently over the broad terraces +of Oldenhurst with little changes to the fortunes of the great house +itself. The Christmas house-party included Lady Canterbridge, whose +husband was still detained at Homburg in company with Dunshunner; +and Bradley, whose wife and cousin lingered on the continent. He was +slightly embarrassed when Lady Canterbridge turned to him one afternoon +as they were returning from the lake and congratulated him abruptly upon +Louise's engagement. + +"Perhaps you don't care to be congratulated," she said, as he did not +immediately respond, "and you had as little to do with it as with that +other? It is a woman's function." + +"What other?" echoed Bradley. + +Lady Canterbridge slightly turned her handsome head towards him as she +walked unbendingly at his side. "Tell me how you manage to keep +your absolute simplicity so fresh. Do you suppose it wasn't known at +Oldenhurst that Frank had quite compromised himself with Miss Macy over +there?" + +"It certainly was not known 'over there,'" said Bradley, curtly. + +"Don't be angry with me." + +Such an appeal from the tall, indifferent woman at his side, so +confidently superior to criticism, and uttered in a low tone, made him +smile, albeit uneasily. + +"I only meant to congratulate you," she continued carelessly. +"Dunshunner is not a bad sort of fellow, and will come into a good +property some day. And then, society is so made up of caprice, just +now, that it is well for your wife's cousin to make the most of her +opportunities while they last. She is very popular now; but next +season--" Seeing that Bradley remained silent, she did not finish +the sentence, but said with her usual abruptness, "Do you know a Miss +Araminta Eulalie Sharpe?" + +Bradley started. Could any one recognize honest Minty in the hopeless +vulgarity which this fine lady had managed to carelessly import into her +name? His eye kindled. + +"She is an old friend of mine, Lady Canterbridge." + +"How fortunate! Then I can please you by giving you good news of her. +She is the coming sensation. They say she is very rich, but quite one of +the people, you know: in fact, she makes no scruples of telling you her +father was a blacksmith, I think, and takes the dear old man with her +everywhere. FitzHarry raves about her, and says her naivete is something +too delicious. She is regularly in with some of the best people already. +Lady Dungeness has taken her up, and Northforeland is only waiting for +your cousin's engagement to be able to go over decently. Shall I ask +her to Buckenthorpe?--come, now, as an apology for my rudeness to your +cousin?" She was very womanly now in spite of her high collar, her +straight back, and her tightly-fitting jacket, as she stood there +smiling. Suddenly, her smile faded; she drew her breath in quickly. + +She had caught a glimpse of his usually thoughtful face and eyes, now +illuminated with some pleasant memory. + +"Thank you," he said smilingly, yet with a certain hesitation, as +he thought of The Lookout and Araminta Eulalie Sharpe, and tried to +reconcile them with the lady before him. "I should like it very much." + +"Then you have known Miss Sharpe a long time?" continued Lady +Canterbridge as they walked on. + +"While we were at The Lookout she was our nearest neighbor." + +"And I suppose your wife will consider it quite proper for you to +see her again at my house?" said Lady Canterbridge, with a return of +conventional levity. + +"Oh! quite," said Bradley. + +They had reached the low Norman-arched side-entrance to the quadrangle. +As Bradley swung open the bolt-studded oaken door to let her pass, she +said carelessly,-- + +"Then you are not coming in now?" + +"No; I shall walk a little longer." + +"And I am quite forgiven?" + +"I am thanking you very much," he said, smiling directly into her blue +eyes. She lowered them, and vanished into the darkness of the passage. + +The news of Minty's success was further corroborated by Sir Robert, +who later that evening called Bradley into the study. "Frank has been +writing from Nice that he has renewed his acquaintance with some old +Californian friends of yours--a Mr. and Miss Sharpe. Lady Canterbridge +says that they are well known in London to some of our friends, but I +would like to ask you something about them. Lady Mainwaring was on the +point of inviting them here when I received a letter from Mr. Sharpe +asking for a BUSINESS interview. Pray who is this Sharpe?" + +"You say he writes for a BUSINESS interview?" asked Bradley. + +"Yes." + +Bradley hesitated for a moment and then said quietly, "Perhaps, then, I +am justified in a breach of confidence to him, in order to answer your +question. He is the man who has assumed all the liabilities of the +Sierran Land and Timber Company to enable the Bank to resume payment. +But he did it on the condition that you were never to know it. For the +rest, he was a blacksmith who made a fortune, as Lady Canterbridge will +tell you." + +"How very odd--how kind, I mean. I should like to have been civil to him +on Frank's account alone." + +"I should see him on business and be civil to him afterwards." Sir +Robert received the American's levity with his usual seriousness. + +"No, they must come here for Christmas. His daughter is--?" + +"Araminta Eulalie Sharpe," said Bradley, in defiant memory of Lady +Canterbridge. + +Sir Robert winced audibly. "I shall rely on you, my dear boy, to help me +make it pleasant for them," he said. + +Christmas came, but not Minty. It drew a large contingent from +Oldenhurst to the quaint old church, who came to view the green-wreathed +monuments, and walls spotted with crimson berries, as if with the blood +of former Oldenhurst warriors, and to impress the wondering villagers +with the ineffable goodness and bounty of the Creator towards the Lords +of Oldenhurst and their friends. Sir Robert, a little gouty, kept the +house, and Bradley, somewhat uneasy at the Sharpes' absence, but more +distrait with other thoughts, wandered listlessly in the long library. +At the lower angle it was embayed into the octagon space of a former +tower, which was furnished as a quaint recess for writing or study, +pierced through its enormous walls with a lance-shaped window, hidden by +heavy curtains. He was gazing abstractedly at the melancholy eyes of Sir +Percival, looking down from the dark panel opposite, when he heard the +crisp rustle of a skirt. Lady Canterbridge tightly and stiffly buttoned +in black from her long narrow boots to her slim, white-collared neck, +stood beside him with a prayer-book in her ungloved hand. Bradley +colored quickly; the penetrating incense of the Christmas boughs +and branches that decked the walls and ceilings, mingled with some +indefinable intoxicating aura from the woman at his side, confused his +senses. He seemed to be losing himself in some forgotten past coeval +with the long, quaintly-lighted room, the rich hangings, and the painted +ancestor of this handsome woman. He recovered himself with an effort, +and said, + +"You are going to church?" + +"I may meet them coming home; it's all the same. You like HIM?" she said +abruptly, pointing to the portrait. "I thought you did not care for that +sort of man over there." + +"A man like that must have felt the impotence of his sacrifice before he +died, and that condoned everything," said Bradley, thoughtfully. + +"Then you don't think him a fool? Bob says it was a fair bargain for +a title and an office, and that by dying he escaped trial and the +confiscation of what he had." + +Bradley did not reply. + +"I am disturbing your illusions again. Yet I rather like them. I think +you are quite capable of a sacrifice--perhaps you know what it is +already." + +He felt that she was looking at him; he felt equally that he could not +respond with a commonplace. He was silent. + +"I have offended you again, Mr. Bradley," she said. "Please be +Christian, and pardon me. You know this is a season of peace and +goodwill." She raised her blue eyes at the same moment to the Christmas +decorations on the ceiling. They were standing before the parted drapery +of the lance window. Midway between the arched curtains hung a spray +of mistletoe--the conceit of a mischievous housemaid. Their eyes met it +simultaneously. + +Bradley had Lady Canterbridge's slim, white hand in his own. The next +moment voices were heard in the passage, and the door nearly opposite to +them opened deliberately. The idea of their apparent seclusion and half +compromising attitude flashed through the minds of both at the same +time. Lady Canterbridge stepped quickly backward, drawing Bradley with +her, into the embrasure of the window; the folds of the curtain swung +together and concealed them from view. + +The door had been opened by the footman, ushering in a broad-shouldered +man, who was carrying a travelling-bag and an umbrella in his hand. +Dropping into an arm-chair before the curtain, he waved away the +footman, who, even now, mechanically repeated a previously vain attempt +to relieve the stranger of his luggage. + +"You leave that 'ere grip sack where it is, young man, and tell Sir +Robert Mainwaring that Mr. Demander Sharpe, of Californy, wishes to +see him--on business--on BUSINESS, do ye' hear? You hang onter that +sentence--on BUSINESS! it's about ez much ez you kin carry, I reckon, +and leave that grip sack alone." + +From behind the curtain Bradley made a sudden movement to go forward; +but Lady Canterbridge--now quite pale but collected--restrained him with +a warning movement of her hand. Sir Robert's stick and halting step were +next heard along the passage, and he entered the room. His simple and +courteous greeting of the stranger was instantly followed by a renewed +attack upon the "grip sack," and a renewed defence of it by the +stranger. + +"No, Sir Robert," said the voice argumentatively, "this yer's a BUSINESS +interview, and until it's over--if YOU please--we'll remain ez we air. +I'm Demander Sharpe, of Californy, and I and my darter, Minty, oncet had +the pleasure of knowing your boy over thar, and of meeting him agin the +other day at Nice." + +"I think," said Sir Robert's voice gently, "that these are not the only +claims you have upon me. I have only a day or two ago heard from +Mr. Bradley that I owe to your generous hands and your disinterested +liberality the saving of my California fortune." + +There was the momentary sound of a pushed-back chair, a stamping of +feet, and then Mr. Sharpe's voice rose high with the blacksmith's old +querulous aggrieved utterance. + +"So it's that finikin', conceited Bradley agin--that's giv' me away! +Ef that man's all-fired belief in his being the Angel Gabriel and Dan'l +Webster rolled inter one don't beat anythin'! I suppose that high-flyin' +jay-bird kalkilated to put you and me and my gal and yer boy inter +harness for his four hoss chariot and he sittin' kam on the box drivin' +us! Why don't he tend to his own business, and look arter his own +concerns--instead o' leaving Jinny Bradley and Loo Macy dependent +on Kings and Queens and titled folks gen'rally, and he, Jim Bradley, +philanderin' with another man's wife--while that thar man is hard at +work tryin' to make a honest livin' fer his wife, buckin' agin faro an' +the tiger gen'rally at Monaco! Eh? And that man a-inter-meddlin' with +me! Ef," continued the voice, dropped to a tone of hopeless moral +conviction, "ef there's a man I mor'aly despise--it's that finikin' Jim +Bradley." + +"You quite misunderstand me, my dear sir," said Sir Robert's hurried +voice; "he told me you had pledged him to secrecy, and he only revealed +it to explain why you wished to see me." + +There was a grunt of half-placated wrath from Sharpe, and then the voice +resumed, but more deliberately, "Well, to come back to business: you've +got a boy, Francis, and I've got a darter, Araminty. They've sorter +taken a shine to each other and they want to get married. Mind yer--wait +a moment!--it wasn't allus so. No, sir; when my gal Araminty first seed +your boy in Californy she was poor, and she didn't kalkilate to get +inter anybody's family unbeknownst or on sufferance. Then she got rich +and you got poor; and then--hold on a minit!--she allows, does my girl, +that there ain't any nearer chance o' their making a match than they +were afore, for she isn't goin' to hev it said that she married your son +fur the chance of some day becomin' Lady Mainwaring." + +"One moment, Mr. Sharpe," said the voice of the Baronet, gravely: "I am +both flattered and pained by what I believe to be the kindly object of +your visit. Indeed, I may say I have gathered a suspicion of what might +be the sequel of this most unhappy acquaintance of my son and your +daughter; but I cannot believe that he has kept you in ignorance of his +unfortunate prospects and his still more unfortunate state of health." + +"When I told ye to hold on a minit," continued the blacksmith's voice, +with a touch of querulousness in its accent, "that was jist wot I was +comin' to. I knowed part of it from my own pocket, she knowed the rest +of it from his lip and the doctors she interviewed. And then she says to +me--sez my girl Minty--Pop,' she sez, 'he's got nothing to live for now +but his title, and that he never may live to get, so that I think ye kin +jist go, Pop, and fairly and squarely, as a honest man, ask his father +to let me hev him.' Them's my darter's own words, Sir Robert, and when +I tell yer that she's got a million o' dollars to back them, ye'll know +she means business, every time." + +"Did Francis know that you were coming here?" + +"Bless ye, no! he don't know that she would have him. Ef it kem to that, +he ain't even asked her! She wouldn't let him until she was sure of +YOU." + +"Then you mean to say there is no engagement?" + +"In course not. I reckoned to do the square thing first with ye." + +The halting step of the Baronet crossing the room was heard distinctly. +He had stopped beside Sharpe. "My dear Mr. Sharpe," he said, in a +troubled voice, "I cannot permit this sacrifice. It is too--too great!" + +"Then," said Sharpe' s voice querulously, "I'm afraid we must do without +your permission. I didn't reckon to find a sort o' British Jim Bradley +in you. If YOU can't permit my darter to sacrifice herself by marryin' +your son, I can't permit her to sacrifice her love and him by NOT +marryin' him. So I reckon this yer interview is over." + +"I am afraid we are both old fools, Mr. Sharpe; but--we will talk this +over with Lady Mainwaring. Come--" There was evidently a slight struggle +near the chair over some inanimate object. But the next moment the +Baronet's voice rose, persuasively, "Really, I must insist upon +relieving you of your bag and umbrella." + +"Well, if you'll let me telegraph 'yes' to Minty, I don't care if yer +do." + +When the room was quiet again, Lady Canterbridge and James Bradley +silently slipped from the curtain, and, without a word, separated at the +door. + + +There was a merry Christmas at Oldenhurst and at Nice. But whether +Minty's loving sacrifice was accepted or not, or whether she ever +reigned as Lady Mainwaring, or lived an untitled widow, I cannot +say. But as Oldenhurst still exists in all its pride and power, it is +presumed that the peril that threatened its fortunes was averted, +and that if another heroine was not found worthy of a frame in its +picture-gallery, at least it had been sustained as of old by devotion +and renunciation. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Phyllis of the Sierras, by Bret Harte + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PHYLLIS OF THE SIERRAS *** + +***** This file should be named 2711.txt or 2711.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/1/2711/ + +Produced by Donald Lainson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by Donald Lainson, charlie@idirect.com. + + + + + +A Phyllis Of The Sierras + +by Bret Harte + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +Where the great highway of the Sierras nears the summit, and the +pines begin to show sterile reaches of rock and waste in their +drawn-up files, there are signs of occasional departures from the +main road, as if the weary traveller had at times succumbed to the +long ascent, and turned aside for rest and breath again. The tired +eyes of many a dusty passenger on the old overland coach have gazed +wistfully on those sylvan openings, and imagined recesses of +primeval shade and virgin wilderness in their dim perspectives. +Had he descended, however, and followed one of these diverging +paths, he would have come upon some rude wagon track, or "logslide," +leading from a clearing on the slope, or the ominous saw-mill, half +hidden in the forest it was slowly decimating. The woodland hush +might have been broken by the sound of water passing over some +unseen dam in the hollow, or the hiss of escaping steam and throb of +an invisible engine in the covert. + +Such, at least, was the experience of a young fellow of five-and- +twenty, who, knapsack on back and stick in hand, had turned aside +from the highway and entered the woods one pleasant afternoon in +July. But he was evidently a deliberate pedestrian, and not a +recent deposit of the proceeding stage-coach; and although his +stout walking-shoes were covered with dust, he had neither the +habitual slouch and slovenliness of the tramp, nor the hurried +fatigue and growing negligence of an involuntary wayfarer. His +clothes, which were strong and serviceable, were better fitted for +their present usage than the ordinary garments of the Californian +travellers, which were too apt to be either above or below their +requirements. But perhaps the stranger's greatest claim to +originality was the absence of any weapon in his equipment. He +carried neither rifle nor gun in his hand, and his narrow leathern +belt was empty of either knife or revolver. + +A half-mile from the main road, which seemed to him to have dropped +out of sight the moment he had left it, he came upon a half-cleared +area, where the hastily-cut stumps of pines, of irregular height, +bore an odd resemblance to the broken columns of some vast and +ruined temple. A few fallen shafts, denuded of their bark and +tessellated branches, sawn into symmetrical cylinders, lay beside +the stumps, and lent themselves to the illusion. But the freshly- +cut chips, so damp that they still clung in layers to each other as +they had fallen from the axe, and the stumps themselves, still wet +and viscous from their drained life-blood, were redolent of an odor +of youth and freshness. + +The young man seated himself on one of the logs and deeply inhaled +the sharp balsamic fragrance--albeit with a slight cough and a +later hurried respiration. This, and a certain drawn look about +his upper lip, seemed to indicate, in spite of his strength and +color, some pulmonary weakness. He, however, rose after a moment's +rest with undiminished energy and cheerfulness, readjusted his +knapsack, and began to lightly pick his way across the fallen +timber. A few paces on, the muffled whir of machinery became more +audible, with the lazy, monotonous command of "Gee thar," from some +unseen ox-driver. Presently, the slow, deliberately-swaying heads +of a team of oxen emerged from the bushes, followed by the clanking +chain of the "skids" of sawn planks, which they were ponderously +dragging with that ostentatious submissiveness peculiar to their +species. They had nearly passed him when there was a sudden hitch +in the procession. From where he stood he could see that a +projecting plank had struck a pile of chips and become partly +imbedded in it. To run to the obstruction and, with a few +dexterous strokes and the leverage of his stout stick, dislodge the +plank was the work not only of the moment but of an evidently +energetic hand. The teamster looked back and merely nodded his +appreciation, and with a "Gee up! Out of that, now!" the skids +moved on. + +"Much obliged, there!" said a hearty voice, as if supplementing the +teamster's imperfect acknowledgment. + +The stranger looked up. The voice came from the open, sashless, +shutterless window of a rude building--a mere shell of boards and +beams half hidden in the still leafy covert before him. He had +completely overlooked it in his approach, even as he had ignored +the nearer throbbing of the machinery, which was so violent as to +impart a decided tremor to the slight edifice, and to shake the +speaker so strongly that he was obliged while speaking to steady +himself by the sashless frame of the window at which he stood. He +had a face of good-natured and alert intelligence, a master's +independence and authority of manner, in spite of his blue jean +overalls and flannel shirt. + +"Don't mention it," said the stranger, smiling with equal but more +deliberate good-humor. Then, seeing that his interlocutor still +lingered a hospitable moment in spite of his quick eyes and the +jarring impatience of the machinery, he added hesitatingly, "I +fancy I've wandered off the track a bit. Do you know a Mr. +Bradley--somewhere here?" + +The stranger's hesitation seemed to be more from some habitual +conscientiousness of statement than awkwardness. The man in the +window replied, "I'm Bradley." + +"Ah! Thank you: I've a letter for you--somewhere. Here it is." He +produced a note from his breast-pocket. Bradley stooped to a +sitting posture in the window. "Pitch it up." It was thrown and +caught cleverly. Bradley opened it, read it hastily, smiled and +nodded, glanced behind him as if to implore further delay from the +impatient machinery, leaned perilously from the window, and said,-- + +"Look here! Do you see that silver-fir straight ahead?" + +"Yes." + +"A little to the left there's a trail. Follow it and skirt along +the edge of the canyon until you see my house. Ask for my wife-- +that's Mrs. Bradley--and give her your letter. Stop!" He drew a +carpenter's pencil from his pocket, scrawled two or three words +across the open sheet and tossed it back to the stranger. "See you +at tea! Excuse me--Mr. Mainwaring--we're short-handed--and--the +engine--" But here he disappeared suddenly. + +Without glancing at the note again, the stranger quietly replaced +it in his pocket, and struck out across the fallen trunks towards +the silver-fir. He quickly found the trail indicated by Bradley, +although it was faint and apparently worn by a single pair of feet +as a shorter and private cut from some more travelled path. It was +well for the stranger that he had a keen eye or he would have lost +it; it was equally fortunate that he had a mountaineering instinct, +for a sudden profound deepening of the blue mist seen dimly through +the leaves before him caused him to slacken his steps. The trail +bent abruptly to the right; a gulf fully two thousand feet deep was +at his feet! It was the Great Canyon. + +At the first glance it seemed so narrow that a rifle-shot could +have crossed its tranquil depths; but a second look at the +comparative size of the trees on the opposite mountain convinced +him of his error. A nearer survey of the abyss also showed him +that instead of its walls being perpendicular they were made of +successive ledges or terraces to the valley below. Yet the air was +so still, and the outlines so clearly cut, that they might have +been only the reflections of the mountains around him cast upon +the placid mirror of a lake. The spectacle arrested him, as it +arrested all men, by some occult power beyond the mere attraction +of beauty or magnitude; even the teamster never passed it without +the tribute of a stone or broken twig tossed into its immeasurable +profundity. + +Reluctantly leaving the spot, the stranger turned with the trail +that now began to skirt its edge. This was no easy matter, as the +undergrowth was very thick, and the foliage dense to the perilous +brink of the precipice. He walked on, however, wondering why +Bradley had chosen so circuitous and dangerous a route to his +house, which naturally would be some distance back from the canyon. +At the end of ten minutes' struggling through the "brush," the +trail became vague, and, to all appearances, ended. Had he +arrived? The thicket was as dense as before; through the +interstices of leaf and spray he could see the blue void of the +canyon at his side, and he even fancied that the foliage ahead of +him was more symmetrical and less irregular, and was touched here +and there with faint bits of color. To complete his utter +mystification, a woman's voice, very fresh, very youthful, and by +no means unmusical, rose apparently from the circumambient air. He +looked hurriedly to the right and left, and even hopelessly into +the trees above him. + +"Yes," said the voice, as if renewing a suspended conversation, "it +was too funny for anything. There were the two Missouri girls from +Skinner's, with their auburn hair ringleted, my dear, like the old +'Books of Beauty'--in white frocks and sashes of an unripe greenish +yellow, that puckered up your mouth like persimmons. One of them +was speechless from good behavior, and the other--well! the other +was so energetic she called out the figures before the fiddler did, +and shrieked to my vis-a-vis to dance up to the entire stranger-- +meaning ME, if you please." + +The voice appeared to come from the foliage that overhung the +canyon, and the stranger even fancied he could detect through the +shimmering leafy veil something that moved monotonously to and fro. +Mystified and impatient, he made a hurried stride forward, his foot +struck a wooden step, and the next moment the mystery was made +clear. He had almost stumbled upon the end of a long veranda that +projected over the abyss before a low, modern dwelling, till then +invisible, nestling on its very brink. The symmetrically-trimmed +foliage he had noticed were the luxuriant Madeira vines that hid +the rude pillars of the veranda; the moving object was a rocking- +chair, with its back towards the intruder, that disclosed only the +brown hair above, and the white skirts and small slippered feet +below, of a seated female figure. In the mean time, a second voice +from the interior of the house had replied to the figure in the +chair, who was evidently the first speaker:-- + +"It must have been very funny; but as long as Jim is always +bringing somebody over from the mill, I don't see how I can go to +those places. You were lucky, my dear, to escape from the new +Division Superintendent last night; he was insufferable to Jim with +his talk of his friend the San Francisco millionaire, and to me +with his cheap society airs. I do hate a provincial fine +gentleman." + +The situation was becoming embarrassing to the intruder. At the +apparition of the woman, the unaffected and simple directness he +had previously shown in his equally abrupt contact with Bradley had +fled utterly; confused by the awkwardness of his arrival, and +shocked at the idea of overhearing a private conversation, he +stepped hurriedly on the veranda. + +"Well? go on!" said the second voice impatiently. "Well, who else +was there? WHAT did you say? I don't hear you. What's the +matter?" + +The seated figure had risen from her chair, and turned a young and +pretty face somewhat superciliously towards the stranger, as she +said in a low tone to her unseen auditor, "Hush! there is somebody +here." + +The young man came forward with an awkwardness that was more boyish +than rustic. His embarrassment was not lessened by the simultaneous +entrance from the open door of a second woman, apparently as young +as and prettier than the first. + +"I trust you'll excuse me for--for--being so wretchedly stupid," he +stammered, "but I really thought, you know, that--that--I was +following the trail to--to--the front of the house, when I stumbled +in--in here." + +Long before he had finished, both women, by some simple feminine +intuition, were relieved and even prepossessed by his voice and +manner. They smiled graciously. The later-comer pointed to the +empty chair. But with his habit of pertinacious conscientiousness +the stranger continued, "It was regularly stupid, wasn't it?--and I +ought to have known better. I should have turned back and gone +away when I found out what an ass I was likely to be, but I was-- +afraid--you know, of alarming you by the noise." + +"Won't you sit down?" said the second lady, pleasantly. + +"Oh, thanks! I've a letter here--I"--he transferred his stick and +hat to his left hand as he felt in his breast-pocket with his right. +But the action was so awkward that the stick dropped on the veranda. +Both women made a movement to restore it to its embarrassed owner, +who, however, quickly anticipated them. "Pray don't mind it," he +continued, with accelerated breath and heightened color. "Ah, +here's the letter!" He produced the note Bradley had returned to +him. "It's mine, in fact--that is, I brought it to Mr. Bradley. He +said I was to give it to--to--to--Mrs. Bradley." He paused, +glancing embarrassedly from the one to the other. + +"I'm Mrs. Bradley," said the prettiest one, with a laugh. He +handed her the letter. It ran as follows:-- + +"DEAR BRADLEY--Put Mr. Mainwaring through as far as he wants to go, +or hang him up at The Lookout, just as he likes. The Bank's behind +him, and his hat's chalked all over the Road; but he don't care +much about being on velvet. That ain't his style--and you'll like +him. He's somebody's son in England. B." + +Mrs. Bradley glanced simply at the first sentence. "Pray sit down, +Mr. Mainwaring," she said gently; "or, rather, let me first +introduce my cousin--Miss Macy." + +"Thanks," said Mainwaring, with a bow to Miss Macy, "but I--I--I-- +think," he added conscientiously, "you did not notice that your +husband had written something across the paper." + +Mrs. Bradley smiled, and glanced at her husband's indorsement--"All +right. Wade in." "It's nothing but Jim's slang," she said, with a +laugh and a slightly heightened color. "He ought not to have sent +you by that short cut; it's a bother, and even dangerous for a +stranger. If you had come directly to US by the road, without +making your first call at the mill," she added, with a touch of +coquetry, "you would have had a pleasanter walk, and seen US +sooner. I suppose, however, you got off the stage at the mill?" + +"I was not on the coach," said Mainwaring, unfastening the strap of +his knapsack. "I walked over from Lone Pine Flat." + +"Walked!" echoed both women in simultaneous astonishment. + +"Yes," returned Mainwaring simply, laying aside his burden and +taking the proffered seat. "It's a very fine bit of country." + +"Why, it's fifteen miles," said Mrs. Bradley, glancing horror- +stricken at her cousin. "How dreadful! And to think Jim could +have sent you a horse to Lone Pine. Why, you must be dead!" + +"Thanks, I'm all right! I rather enjoyed it, you know." + +"But," said Miss Macy, glancing wonderingly at his knapsack, "you +must want something, a change--or some refreshment--after fifteen +miles." + +"Pray don't disturb yourself," said Mainwaring, rising hastily, but +not quickly enough to prevent the young girl from slipping past him +into the house, whence she rapidly returned with a decanter and +glasses. + +"Perhaps Mr. Mainwaring would prefer to go into Jim's room and wash +his hands and put on a pair of slippers?" said Mrs. Bradley, with +gentle concern. + +"Thanks, no. I really am not tired. I sent some luggage yesterday +by the coach to the Summit Hotel," he said, observing the women's +eyes still fixed upon his knapsack. "I dare say I can get them if +I want them. I've got a change here," he continued, lifting the +knapsack as if with a sudden sense of its incongruity with its +surroundings, and depositing it on the end of the veranda. + +"Do let it remain where it is," said Mrs. Bradley, greatly amused, +"and pray sit still and take some refreshment. You'll make +yourself ill after your exertions," she added, with a charming +assumption of matronly solicitude. + +"But I'm not at all deserving of your sympathy," said Mainwaring, +with a laugh. "I'm awfully fond of walking, and my usual +constitutional isn't much under this." + +"Perhaps you were stronger than you are now," said Mrs. Bradley, +gazing at him with a frank curiosity that, however, brought a faint +deepening of color to his cheek. + +"I dare say you're right," he said suddenly, with an apologetic +smile. "I quite forgot that I'm a sort of an invalid, you know, +travelling for my health. I'm not very strong here," he added, +lightly tapping his chest, that now, relieved of the bands of his +knapsack, appeared somewhat thin and hollow in spite of his broad +shoulders. His voice, too, had become less clear and distinct. + +Mrs. Bradley, who was still watching him, here rose potentially. +"You ought to take more care of yourself," she said. "You should +begin by eating this biscuit, drinking that glass of whiskey, and +making yourself more comfortable in Jim's room until we can get the +spare room fixed a little." + +"But I am not to be sent to bed--am I?" asked Mainwaring, in half- +real, half-amused consternation. + +"I'm not so sure of that," said Mrs. Bradley, with playful precision. +"But for the present we'll let you off with a good wash and a nap +afterwards in that rocking-chair, while my cousin and I make some +little domestic preparations. You see," she added with a certain +proud humility, "we've got only one servant--a Chinaman, and there +are many things we can't leave to him." + +The color again rose in Mainwaring's cheek, but he had tact enough +to reflect that any protest or hesitation on his part at that +moment would only increase the difficulties of his gentle +entertainers. He allowed himself to be ushered into the house by +Mrs. Bradley, and shown to her husband's room, without perceiving +that Miss Macy had availed herself of his absence to run to the end +of the veranda, mischievously try to lift the discarded knapsack to +her own pretty shoulder, but, failing, heroically stagger with it +into the passage and softly deposit it at his door. This done, she +pantingly rejoined her cousin in the kitchen. + +"Well," said Mrs. Bradley, emphatically. "DID you ever? Walking +fifteen miles for pleasure--and with such lungs!" + +"And that knapsack!" added Louise Macy, pointing to the mark in her +little palm where the strap had imbedded itself in the soft flesh. + +"He's nice, though; isn't he?" said Mrs. Bradley, tentatively. + +"Yes," said Miss Macy, "he isn't, certainly, one of those +provincial fine gentlemen you object to. But DID you see his +shoes? I suppose they make the miles go quickly, or seem to +measure less by comparison." + +"They're probably more serviceable than those high-heeled things +that Captain Greyson hops about in." + +"But the Captain always rides--and rides very well--you know," said +Louise, reflectively. There was a moment's pause. + +"I suppose Jim will tell us all about him," said Mrs. Bradley, +dismissing the subject, as she turned her sleeves back over her +white arms, preparatory to grappling certain culinary difficulties. + +"Jim," observed Miss Macy, shortly, "in my opinion, knows nothing +more than his note says. That's like Jim." + +"There's nothing more to know, really," said Mrs. Bradley, with a +superior air. "He's undoubtedly the son of some Englishman of +fortune, sent out here for his health." + +"Hush!" + +Miss Macy had heard a step in the passage. It halted at last, half +irresolutely, before the open door of the kitchen, and the stranger +appeared with an embarrassed air. + +But in his brief absence he seemed to have completely groomed +himself, and stood there, the impersonation of close-cropped, +clean, and wholesome English young manhood. The two women +appreciated it with cat-like fastidiousness. + +"I beg your pardon; but really you're going to let a fellow do +something for you," he said, "just to keep him from looking like a +fool. I really can do no end of things, you know, if you'll try +me. I've done some camping-out, and can cook as well as the next +man." + +The two women made a movement of smiling remonstrance, half +coquettish, and half superior, until Mrs. Bradley, becoming +conscious of her bare arms and the stranger's wandering eyes, +colored faintly, and said with more decision:-- + +"Certainly not. You'd only be in the way. Besides, you need rest +more than we do. Put yourself in the rocking-chair in the veranda, +and go to sleep until Mr. Bradley comes." + +Mainwaring saw that she was serious, and withdrew, a little ashamed +at his familiarity into which his boyishness had betrayed him. But +he had scarcely seated himself in the rocking-chair before Miss +Macy appeared, carrying with both hands a large tin basin of +unshelled peas. + +"There," she said pantingly, placing her burden in his lap, "if you +really want to help, there's something to do that isn't very +fatiguing. You may shell these peas." + +"SHELL them--I beg pardon, but how?" he asked, with smiling +earnestness. + +"How? Why, I'll show you--look." + +She frankly stepped beside him, so close that her full-skirted +dress half encompassed him and the basin in a delicious confusion, +and, leaning over his lap, with her left hand picked up a pea-cod, +which, with a single movement of her charming little right thumb, +she broke at the end, and stripped the green shallow of its tiny +treasures. + +He watched her with smiling eyes; her own, looking down on him, +were very bright and luminous. "There; that's easy enough," she +said, and turned away. + +"But--one moment, Miss--Miss--?" + +"Macy," said louise. + +"Where am I to put the shells?" + +"Oh! throw them down there--there's room enough." + +She was pointing to the canyon below. The veranda actually +projected over its brink, and seemed to hang in mid air above it. +Mainwaring almost mechanically threw his arm out to catch the +incautious girl, who had stepped heedlessly to its extreme edge. + +"How odd! Don't you find it rather dangerous here?" he could not +help saying. "I mean--you might have had a railing that wouldn't +intercept the view and yet be safe?" + +"It's a fancy of Mr. Bradley's," returned the young girl +carelessly. "It's all like this. The house was built on a ledge +against the side of the precipice, and the road suddenly drops down +to it." + +"It's tremendously pretty, all the same, you know," said the young +man thoughtfully, gazing, however, at the girl's rounded chin above +him. + +"Yes," she replied curtly. "But this isn't working. I must go +back to Jenny. You can shell the peas until Mr. Bradley comes +home. He won't be long." + +She turned away, and re-entered the house. Without knowing why, he +thought her withdrawal abrupt, and he was again feeling his ready +color rise with the suspicion of either having been betrayed by +the young girl's innocent fearlessness into some unpardonable +familiarity, which she had quietly resented, or of feeling an ease +and freedom in the company of these two women that were inconsistent +with respect, and should be restrained. + +He, however, began to apply himself to the task given to him with +his usual conscientiousness of duty, and presently acquired a +certain manual dexterity in the operation. It was "good fun" to +throw the cast-off husks into the mighty unfathomable void before +him, and watch them linger with suspended gravity in mid air for a +moment--apparently motionless--until they either lost themselves, a +mere vanishing black spot in the thin ether, or slid suddenly at a +sharp angle into unknown shadow. How deuced odd for him to be +sitting here in this fashion! It would be something to talk of +hereafter, and yet,--he stopped--it was not at all in the line of +that characteristic adventure, uncivilized novelty, and barbarous +freedom which for the last month he had sought and experienced. It +was not at all like his meeting with the grizzly last week while +wandering in a lonely canyon; not a bit in the line of his chance +acquaintance with that notorious ruffian, Spanish Jack, or his +witnessing with his own eyes that actual lynching affair at Angels. +No! Nor was it at all characteristic, according to his previous +ideas of frontier rural seclusion--as for instance the Pike County +cabin of the family where he stayed one night, and where the +handsome daughter asked him what his Christian name was. No! +These two young women were very unlike her; they seemed really +quite the equals of his family and friends in England,--perhaps +more attractive,--and yet, yes, it was this very attractiveness +that alarmed his inbred social conservatism regarding women. With +a man it was very different; that alert, active, intelligent +husband, instinct with the throbbing life of his saw-mill, creator +and worker in one, challenged his unqualified trust and admiration. + +He had become conscious for the last minute or two of thinking +rapidly and becoming feverishly excited; of breathing with greater +difficulty, and a renewed tendency to cough. The tendency +increased until he instinctively put aside the pan from his lap and +half rose. But even that slight exertion brought on an accession +of coughing. He put his handkerchief to his lips, partly to keep +the sound from disturbing the women in the kitchen, partly because +of a certain significant taste in his mouth which he unpleasantly +remembered. When he removed the handkerchief it was, as he +expected, spotted with blood. He turned quickly and re-entered the +house softly, regaining the bedroom without attracting attention. +An increasing faintness here obliged him to lie down on the bed +until it should pass. + +Everything was quiet. He hoped they would not discover his absence +from the veranda until he was better; it was deucedly awkward that +he should have had this attack just now--and after he had made so +light of his previous exertions. They would think him an +effeminate fraud, these two bright, active women and that alert, +energetic man. A faint color came into his cheek at the idea, and +an uneasy sense that he had been in some way foolishly imprudent +about his health. Again, they might be alarmed at missing him from +the veranda; perhaps he had better have remained there; perhaps he +ought to tell them that he had concluded to take their advice and +lie down. He tried to rise, but the deep blue chasm before the +window seemed to be swelling up to meet him, the bed slowly sinking +into its oblivious profundity. He knew no more. + +He came to with the smell and taste of some powerful volatile +spirit, and the vague vision of Mr. Bradley still standing at the +window of the mill and vibrating with the machinery; this changed +presently to a pleasant lassitude and lazy curiosity as he +perceived Mr. Bradley smile and apparently slip from the window of +the mill to his bedside. "You're all right now," said Bradley, +cheerfully. + +He was feeling Mainwaring's pulse. Had he really been ill and was +Bradley a doctor? + +Bradley evidently saw what was passing in his mind. "Don't be +alarmed," he said gayly. "I'm not a doctor, but I practise a +little medicine and surgery on account of the men at the mill, and +accidents, you know. You're all right now; you've lost a little +blood: but in a couple of weeks in this air we'll have that +tubercle healed, and you'll be as right as a trivet." + +"In a couple of weeks!" echoed Mainwaring, in faint astonishment. +"Why, I leave here to-morrow." + +"You'll do nothing of the kind" said Mrs. Bradley, with smiling +peremptoriness, suddenly slipping out from behind her husband. +"Everything is all perfectly arranged. Jim has sent off messengers +to your friends, so that if you can't come to them, they can come +to you. You see you can't help yourself! If you WILL walk fifteen +miles with such lungs, and then frighten people to death, you must +abide by the consequences." + +"You see the old lady has fixed you," said Bradley, smiling; "and +she's the master here. Come, Mainwaring, you can send any other +message you like, and have who and what you want here; but HERE you +must stop for a while." + +"But did I frighten you really?" stammered Mainwaring, faintly, to +Mrs. Bradley. + +"Frighten us!" said Mrs. Bradley. "Well, look there!" + +She pointed to the window, which commanded a view of the veranda. +Miss Macy had dropped into the vacant chair, with her little feet +stretched out before her, her cheeks burning with heat and fire, +her eyes partly closed, her straw hat hanging by a ribbon round her +neck, her brown hair clinging to her ears and forehead in damp +tendrils, and an enormous palm-leaf fan in each hand violently +playing upon this charming picture of exhaustion and abandonment. + +"She came tearing down to the mill, bare-backed on our half-broken +mustang, about half an hour ago, to call me 'to help you,'" +explained Bradley. "Heaven knows how she managed to do it!" + + +CHAPTER II. + + +The medication of the woods was not overestimated by Bradley. +There was surely some occult healing property in that vast +reservoir of balmy and resinous odors over which The Lookout +beetled and clung, and from which at times the pure exhalations of +the terraced valley seemed to rise. Under its remedial influence +and a conscientious adherence to the rules of absolute rest and +repose laid down for him, Mainwaring had no return of the +hemorrhage. The nearest professional medical authority, hastily +summoned, saw no reason for changing or for supplementing Bradley's +intelligent and simple treatment, although astounded that the +patient had been under no more radical or systematic cure than +travel and exercise. The women especially were amazed that +Mainwaring had taken "nothing for it," in their habitual experience +of an unfettered pill-and-elixir-consuming democracy. In their +knowledge of the thousand "panaceas" that filled the shelves of the +general store, this singular abstention of their guest seemed to +indicate a national peculiarity. + +His bed was moved beside the low window, from which he could not +only view the veranda but converse at times with its occupants, and +even listen to the book which Miss Macy, seated without, read aloud +to him. In the evening Bradley would linger by his couch until +late, beguiling the tedium of his convalescence with characteristic +stories and information which he thought might please the invalid. +For Mainwaring, who had been early struck with Bradley's ready and +cultivated intelligence, ended by shyly avoiding the discussion of +more serious topics, partly because Bradley impressed him with a +suspicion of his own inferiority, and partly because Mainwaring +questioned the taste of Bradley's apparent exhibition of his +manifest superiority. He learned accidentally that this mill-owner +and backwoodsman was a college-bred man; but the practical +application of that education to the ordinary affairs of life was +new to the young Englishman's traditions, and grated a little +harshly on his feelings. He would have been quite content if +Bradley had, like himself and fellows he knew, undervalued his +training, and kept his gifts conservatively impractical. The +knowledge also that his host's education naturally came from some +provincial institution unlike Oxford and Cambridge may have +unconsciously affected his general estimate. I say unconsciously, +for his strict conscientiousness would have rejected any such +formal proposition. + +Another trifle annoyed him. He could not help noticing also that +although Bradley's manner and sympathy were confidential and almost +brotherly, he never made any allusion to Mainwaring's own family or +connections, and, in fact, gave no indication of what he believed +was the national curiosity in regard to strangers. Somewhat +embarrassed by this indifference, Mainwaring made the occasion of +writing some letters home an opportunity for laughingly alluding to +the fact that he had made his mother and his sisters fully aware of +the great debt they owed the household of The Lookout. + +"They'll probably all send you a round robin of thanks, except, +perhaps, my next brother, Bob." + +Bradley contented himself with a gesture of general deprecation, +and did not ask WHY Mainwaring's young brother should contemplate +his death with satisfaction. Nevertheless, some time afterwards +Miss Macy remarked that it seemed hard that the happiness of one +member of a family should depend upon a calamity to another. "As +for instance?" asked Mainwaring, who had already forgotten the +circumstance. "Why, if you had died and your younger brother +succeeded to the baronetcy, and become Sir Robert Mainwaring," +responded Miss Macy, with precision. This was the first and only +allusion to his family and prospective rank. On the other hand, he +had--through naive and boyish inquiries, which seemed to amuse his +entertainers--acquired, as he believed, a full knowledge of the +history and antecedents of the Bradley household. He knew how +Bradley had brought his young wife and her cousin to California +and abandoned a lucrative law practice in San Francisco to take +possession of this mountain mill and woodland, which he had +acquired through some professional service. + +"Then you are a barrister really?" said Mainwaring, gravely. + +Bradley laughed. "I'm afraid I've had more practice--though not as +lucrative a one--as surgeon or doctor." + +"But you're regularly on the rolls, you know; you're entered as +Counsel, and all that sort of thing?" continued Mainwaring, with +great seriousness. + +"Well, yes," replied Bradley, much amused. "I'm afraid I must +plead guilty to that." + +"It's not a bad sort of thing," said Mainwaring, naively, ignoring +Bradley's amusement. "I've got a cousin who's gone in for the law. +Got out of the army to do it--too. He's a sharp fellow." + +"Then you DO allow a man to try many trades--over there," said Miss +Macy, demurely. + +"Yes, sometimes," said Mainwaring, graciously, but by no means +certain that the case was at all analogous. + +Nevertheless, as if relieved of certain doubts of the conventional +quality of his host's attainments, he now gave himself up to a very +hearty and honest admiration of Bradley. "You know it's awfully +kind of him to talk to a fellow like me who just pulled through, +and never got any prizes at Oxford, and don't understand the half +of these things," he remarked confidentially to Mrs. Bradley. "He +knows more about the things we used to go in for at Oxford than +lots of our men, and he's never been there. He's uncommonly +clever." + +"Jim was always very brilliant," returned Mrs. Bradley, +indifferently, and with more than even conventionally polite wifely +deprecation; "I wish he were more practical." + +"Practical! Oh, I say, Mrs. Bradley! Why, a fellow that can go in +among a lot of workmen and tell them just what to do--an all-round +chap that can be independent of his valet, his doctor, and his-- +banker! By Jove--THAT'S practical!" + +"I mean," said Mrs. Bradley, coldly, "that there are some things +that a gentleman ought not to be practical about nor independent +of. Mr. Bradley would have done better to have used his talents in +some more legitimate and established way." + +Mainwaring looked at her in genuine surprise. To his inexperienced +observation Bradley's intelligent energy and, above all, his +originality, ought to have been priceless in the eyes of his wife-- +the American female of his species. He felt that slight shock +which most loyal or logical men feel when first brought face to +face with the easy disloyalty and incomprehensible logic of the +feminine affections. Here was a fellow, by Jove, that any woman +ought to be proud of, and--and--he stopped blankly. He wondered if +Miss Macy sympathized with her cousin. + +Howbeit, this did not affect the charm of their idyllic life at The +Lookout. The precipice over which they hung was as charming as +ever in its poetic illusions of space and depth and color; the +isolation of their comfortable existence in the tasteful yet +audacious habitation, the pleasant routine of daily tasks and +amusements, all tended to make the enforced quiet and inaction of +his convalescence a lazy recreation. He was really improving; more +than that, he was conscious of a certain satisfaction in this +passive observation of novelty that was healthier and perhaps TRUER +than his previous passion for adventure and that febrile desire for +change and excitement which he now felt was a part of his disease. +Nor were incident and variety entirely absent from this tranquil +experience. He was one day astonished at being presented by +Bradley with copies of the latest English newspapers, procured from +Sacramento, and he equally astonished his host, after profusely +thanking him, by only listlessly glancing at their columns. He +estopped a proposed visit from one of his influential countrymen; +in the absence of his fair entertainers at their domestic duties, +he extracted infinite satisfaction from Foo-Yup, the Chinese +servant, who was particularly detached for his service. From his +invalid coign of vantage at the window he was observant of all that +passed upon the veranda, that al-fresco audience-room of The +Lookout, and he was good-humoredly conscious that a great many +eccentric and peculiar visitors were invariably dragged thither by +Miss Macy, and goaded into characteristic exhibition within sight +and hearing of her guest, with a too evident view, under the +ostentatious excuse of extending his knowledge of national +character or mischievously shocking him. + +"When you are strong enough to stand Captain Gashweiler's opinions +of the Established Church and Chinamen," said Miss Macy, after one +of these revelations, "I'll get Jim to bring him here, for really he +swears so outrageously that even in the broadest interests of +international understanding and good-will neither Mrs. Bradley nor +myself could be present." + +On another occasion she provokingly lingered before his window for +a moment with a rifle slung jauntily over her shoulder. "If you +hear a shot or two don't excite yourself, and believe we're having +a lynching case in the woods. It will be only me. There's some +creature--confess, you expected me to say 'critter'--hanging round +the barn. It may be a bear. Good-by." She missed the creature,-- +which happened to be really a bear,--much to Mainwaring's illogical +satisfaction. "I wonder why," he reflected, with vague uneasiness, +"she doesn't leave all that sort of thing to girls like that tow- +headed girl at the blacksmith's." + +It chanced, however, that this blacksmith's tow-headed daughter, +who, it may be incidentally remarked, had the additional +eccentricities of large black eyes and large white teeth, came to +the fore in quite another fashion. Shortly after this, Mainwaring +being able to leave his room and join the family board, Mrs. +Bradley found it necessary to enlarge her domestic service, and +arranged with her nearest neighbor, the blacksmith, to allow his +daughter to come to The Lookout for a few days to "do the chores" +and assist in the housekeeping, as she had on previous occasions. +The day of her advent Bradley entered Mainwaring's room, and, +closing the door mysteriously, fixed his blue eyes, kindling with +mischief, on the young Englishman. + +"You are aware, my dear boy," he began with affected gravity, "that +you are now living in a land of liberty, where mere artificial +distinctions are not known, and where Freedom from her mountain +heights generally levels all social positions. I think you have +graciously admitted that fact." + +"I know I've been taking a tremendous lot of freedom with you and +yours, old man, and it's a deuced shame," interrupted Mainwaring, +with a faint smile. + +"And that nowhere," continued Bradley, with immovable features, +"does equality exist as perfectly as above yonder unfathomable +abyss, where you have also, doubtless, observed the American eagle +proudly soars and screams defiance." + +"Then that was the fellow that kept me awake this morning, and made +me wonder if I was strong enough to hold a gun again." + +"That wouldn't have settled the matter," continued Bradley, +imperturbably. "The case is simply this: Miss Minty Sharpe, that +blacksmith's daughter, has once or twice consented, for a slight +emolument, to assist in our domestic service for a day or two, and +she comes back again to-day. Now, under the aegis of that noble +bird whom your national instincts tempt you to destroy, she has on +all previous occasions taken her meals with us, at the same table, +on terms of perfect equality. She will naturally expect to do the +same now. Mrs. Bradley thought it proper, therefore, to warn you, +that, in case your health was not quite equal to this democratic +simplicity, you could still dine in your room." + +"It would be great fun--if Miss Sharpe won't object to my +presence." + +"But it must not be 'great fun,'" returned Bradley, more seriously; +"for Miss Minty's perception of humor is probably as keen as yours, +and she would be quick to notice it. And, so far from having any +objection to you, I am inclined to think that we owe her consent to +come to her desire of making your acquaintance." + +"She will find my conduct most exemplary," said Mainwaring, +earnestly. + +"Let us hope so," concluded Bradley, with unabated gravity. "And, +now that you have consented, let me add from my own experience that +Miss Minty's lemon-pies alone are worthy of any concession. + +The dinner-hour came. Mainwaring, a little pale and interesting, +leaning on the arm of Bradley, crossed the hall, and for the first +time entered the dining-room of the house where he had lodged for +three weeks. It was a bright, cheerful apartment, giving upon the +laurels of the rocky hillside, and permeated, like the rest of the +house, with the wholesome spice of the valley--an odor that, in its +pure desiccating property, seemed to obliterate all flavor of alien +human habitation, and even to dominate and etherealize the +appetizing smell of the viands before them. The bare, shining, +planed, boarded walls appeared to resent any decoration that might +have savored of dust, decay, or moisture. The four large windows +and long, open door, set in scanty strips of the plainest spotless +muslin, framed in themselves pictures of woods and rock and sky of +limitless depth, color, and distance, that made all other adornment +impertinent. Nature, invading the room at every opening, had +banished Art from those neutral walls. + +"It's like a picnic, with comfort," said Mainwaring, glancing round +him with boyish appreciation. Miss Minty was not yet there; the +Chinaman was alone in attendance. Mainwaring could not help +whispering, half mischievously, to Louise, "You draw the line at +Chinamen, I suppose?" + +"WE don't, but HE does," answered the young girl. "He considers us +his social inferiors. But--hush!" + +Minty Sharpe had just entered the room, and was advancing with +smiling confidence towards the table. Mainwaring was a little +startled; he had seen Minty in a holland sun-bonnet and turned up +skirt crossing the veranda, only a moment before; in the brief +instant between the dishing-up of dinner and its actual announcement +she had managed to change her dress, put on a clean collar, cuffs, +and a large jet brooch, and apply some odorous unguent to her +rebellious hair. Her face, guiltless of powder or cold cream, was +still shining with the healthy perspiration of her last labors as +she promptly took the vacant chair beside Mainwaring. + +"Don't mind me, folks," she said cheerfully, resting her plump +elbow on the table, and addressing the company generally, but +gazing with frank curiosity into the face of the young man at her +side. "It was a keen jump, I tell yer, to get out of my old duds +inter these, and look decent inside o' five minutes. But I reckon +I ain't kept yer waitin' long--least of all this yer sick stranger. +But you're looking pearter than you did. You're wonderin' like ez +not where I ever saw ye before?" she continued, laughing. "Well, +I'll tell you. Last week! I'd kem over yer on a chance of seein' +Jenny Bradley, and while I was meanderin' down the veranda I saw +you lyin' back in your chair by the window drowned in sleep, like a +baby. Lordy! I mout hev won a pair o' gloves, but I reckoned you +were Loo's game, and not mine." + +The slightly constrained laugh which went round the table after +Miss Minty's speech was due quite as much to the faint flush that +had accented Mainwaring's own smile as to the embarrassing remark +itself. Mrs. Bradley and Miss Macy exchanged rapid glances. +Bradley, who alone retained his composure, with a slight flicker of +amusement in the corner of his eye and nostril, said quickly: "You +see, Mainwaring, how nature stands ready to help your convalescence +at every turn. If Miss Minty had only followed up her healing +opportunity, your cure would have been complete." + +"Ye mout hev left some o' that pretty talk for HIM to say," said +Minty, taking up her knife and fork with a slight shrug, "and you +needn't call me MISS Minty either, jest because there's kempeny +present." + +"I hope you won't look upon me as company, Minty, or I shall be +obliged to call you 'Miss' too," said Mainwaring, unexpectedly +regaining his usual frankness. + +Bradley's face brightened; Miss Minty raised her black eyes from +her plate with still broader appreciation. + +"There's nothin' mean about that," she said, showing her white +teeth. "Well, what's YOUR first name?" + +"Not as pretty as yours, I'm afraid. It's Frank." + +"No it ain't, it's Francis! You reckon to be Sir Francis some +day," she said gravely. "You can't play any Frank off on me. You +wouldn't do it on HER," she added, indicating Louise with her +elbow. + +A momentous silence followed. The particular form that Minty's +vulgarity had taken had not been anticipated by the two other +women. They had, not unreasonably, expected some original audacity +or gaucherie from the blacksmith's daughter, which might astonish +yet amuse their guest, and condone for the situation forced upon +them. But they were not prepared for a playfulness that involved +themselves in a ridiculous indiscretion. Mrs. Bradley's eyes +sought her husband's meaningly; Louise's pretty mouth hardened. +Luckily the cheerful cause of it suddenly jumped up from the table, +and saying that the stranger was starving, insisted upon bringing a +dish from the other side and helping him herself plentifully. +Mainwaring rose gallantly to take the dish from her hand, a slight +scuffle ensued which ended in the young man being forced down in +his chair by the pressure of Minty's strong plump hand on his +shoulder. "There," she said, "ye kin mind your dinner now, and I +reckon we'll give the others a chance to chip into the conversation," +and at once applied herself to the plate before her. + +The conversation presently became general, with the exception that +Minty, more or less engrossed by professional anxiety in the +quality of the dinner and occasional hurried visits to the kitchen, +briefly answered the few polite remarks which Mainwaring felt +called upon to address to her. Nevertheless, he was conscious, +malgre her rallying allusions to Miss Macy, that he felt none of +the vague yet half pleasant anxiety with which Louise was beginning +to inspire him. He felt at ease in Minty's presence, and believed, +rightly or wrongly, that she understood him as well as he +understood her. And there were certainly points in common between +his two hostesses and their humbler though proud dependent. The +social evolution of Mrs. Bradley and Louise Macy from some previous +Minty was neither remote nor complete; the self-sufficient +independence, ease, and quiet self-assertion were alike in each. +The superior position was still too recent and accidental for +either to resent or criticise qualities that were common to both. +At least, this was what he thought when not abandoning himself to +the gratification of a convalescent appetite; to the presence of +two pretty women, the sympathy of a genial friend, the healthy +intoxication of the white sunlight that glanced upon the pine +walls, the views that mirrored themselves in the open windows, and +the pure atmosphere in which The Lookout seemed to swim. Wandering +breezes of balm and spice lightly stirred the flowers on the table, +and seemed to fan his hair and forehead with softly healing breath. +Looking up in an interval of silence, he caught Bradley's gray eyes +fixed upon him with a subdued light of amusement and affection, as +of an elder brother regarding a schoolboy's boisterous appetite at +some feast. Mainwaring laid down his knife and fork with a +laughing color, touched equally by Bradley's fraternal kindliness +and the consciousness of his gastronomical powers. + +"Hang it, Bradley; look here! I know my appetite's disgraceful, +but what can a fellow do? In such air, with such viands and such +company! It's like the bees getting drunk on Hybla and Hymettus, +you know. I'm not responsible!" + +"It's the first square meal I believe you've really eaten in six +months," said Bradley, gravely. "I can't understand why your +doctor allowed you to run down so dreadfully." + +"I reckon you ain't as keerful of yourself, you Britishers, ez us," +said Minty. "Lordy! Why there's Pop invests in more patent +medicines in one day than you have in two weeks, and he'd make two +of you. Mebbe your folks don't look after you enough." + +"I'm a splendid advertisement of what YOUR care and your medicines +have done," said Mainwaring, gratefully, to Mrs. Bradley; "and if +you ever want to set up a 'Cure' here, I'm ready with a ten-page +testimonial." + +"Have a care, Mainwaring," said Bradley, laughing, "that the ladies +don't take you at your word. Louise and Jenny have been doing +their best for the last year to get me to accept a flattering offer +from a Sacramento firm to put up a hotel for tourists on the site +of The Lookout. Why, I believe that they have already secretly in +their hearts concocted a flaming prospectus of 'Unrivalled Scenery' +and 'Health-giving Air,' and are looking forward to Saturday night +hops on the piazza." + +"Have you really, though?" said Mainwaring, gazing from the one to +the other. + +"We should certainly see more company than we do now, and feel a +little less out of the world," said Louise, candidly. "There are +no neighbors here--I mean the people at the Summit are not," she +added, with a slight glance towards Minty. + +"And Mr. Bradley would find it more profitable--not to say more +suitable to a man of his position--than this wretched saw-mill and +timber business," said Mrs. Bradley, decidedly. + +Mainwaring was astounded; was it possible they considered it more +dignified for a lawyer to keep a hotel than a saw-mill? Bradley, +as if answering what was passing in his mind, said mischievously, +"I'm not sure, exactly, what my position is, my dear, and I'm +afraid I've declined the hotel on business principles. But, by the +way, Mainwaring, I found a letter at the mill this morning from Mr. +Richardson. He is about to pay us the distinguished honor of +visiting The Lookout, solely on your account, my dear fellow." + +"But I wrote him that I was much better, and it wasn't necessary +for him to come," said Mainwaring. + +"He makes an excuse of some law business with me. I suppose he +considers the mere fact of his taking the trouble to come here, all +the way from San Francisco, a sufficient honor to justify any +absence of formal invitation," said Bradley, smiling. + +"But he's only--I mean he's my father's banker," said Mainwaring, +correcting himself, "and--you don't keep a hotel." + +"Not yet," returned Bradley, with a mischievous glance at the two +women, "but The Lookout is elastic, and I dare say we can manage to +put him up." + +A silence ensued. It seemed as if some shadow, or momentary +darkening of the brilliant atmosphere; some film across the mirror- +like expanse of the open windows, or misty dimming of their +wholesome light, had arisen to their elevation. Mainwaring felt +that he was looking forward with unreasoning indignation and +uneasiness to this impending interruption of their idyllic life; +Mrs. Bradley and Louise, who had become a little more constrained +and formal under Minty's freedom, were less sympathetic; even the +irrepressible Minty appeared absorbed in the responsibilities of +the dinner. + +Bradley alone preserved his usual patient good-humor. "We'll take +our coffee on the veranda, and the ladies will join us by and by, +Mainwaring; besides, I don't know that I can allow you, as an +invalid, to go entirely through Minty's bountiful menu at present. +You shall have the sweets another time." + +When they were alone on the veranda, he said, between the puffs of +his black brier-wood pipe,--a pet aversion of Mrs. Bradley,--"I +wonder how Richardson will accept Minty!" + +"If I can, I think he MUST," returned Mainwaring, dryly. "By Jove, +it will be great fun to see him; but"--he stopped and hesitated--"I +don't know about the ladies. I don't think, you know, that they'll +stand Minty again before another stranger." + +Bradley glanced quickly at the young man; their eyes met, and they +both joined in a superior and, I fear, disloyal smile. After a +pause Bradley, as if in a spirit of further confidence, took his +pipe from his mouth and pointed to the blue abyss before them. + +"Look at that profundity, Mainwaring, and think of it ever being +bullied and overawed by a long veranda-load of gaping, patronizing +tourists, and the idiotic flirting females of their species. Think +of a lot of over-dressed creatures flouting those severe outlines +and deep-toned distances with frippery and garishness. You know +how you have been lulled to sleep by that delicious, indefinite, +far-off murmur of the canyon at night--think of it being broken by +a crazy waltz or a monotonous german--by the clatter of waiters and +the pop of champagne corks. And yet, by thunder, those women are +capable of liking both and finding no discord in them!" + +"Dancing ain't half bad, you know," said Mainwaring, conscientiously, +"if a chap's got the wind to do it; and all Americans, especially +the women, dance better than we do. But I say, Bradley, to hear you +talk, a fellow wouldn't suspect you were as big a Vandal as anybody, +with a beastly, howling saw-mill in the heart of the primeval +forest. By Jove, you quite bowled me over that first day we met, +when you popped your head out of that delirium tremens shaking mill, +like the very genius of destructive improvement." + +"But that was FIGHTING Nature, not patronizing her; and it's a +business that pays. That reminds me that I must go back to it," +said Bradley, rising and knocking the ashes from his pipe. + +"Not AFTER dinner, surely!" said Mainwaring, in surprise. "Come +now, that's too much like the bolting Yankee of the travellers' +books." + +"There's a heavy run to get through tonight. We're working against +time," returned Bradley. Even while speaking he had vanished +within the house, returned quickly--having replaced his dark suit +by jean trousers tucked in heavy boots, and a red flannel shirt +over his starched white one--and, nodding gayly to Mainwaring, +stepped from the lower end of the veranda. "The beggar actually +looks pleased to go," said Mainwaring to himself in wonderment. + +"Oh! Jim," said Mrs. Bradley, appearing at the door. + +"Yes," said Bradley, faintly, from the bushes. + +"Minty's ready. You might take her home." + +"All right. I'll wait." + +"I hope I haven't frightened Miss Sharpe away," said Mainwaring. +"She isn't going, surely?" + +"Only to get some better clothes, on account of company. I'm +afraid you are giving her a good deal of trouble, Mr. Mainwaring," +said Mrs. Bradley, laughing. + +"She wished me to say good-by to you for her, as she couldn't come +on the veranda in her old shawl and sun-bonnet," added Louise, who +had joined them. "What do you really think of her, Mr. Mainwaring? +I call her quite pretty, at times. Don't you?" + +Mainwaring knew not what to say. He could not understand why they +could have any special interest in the girl, or care to know what +he, a perfect stranger, thought of her. He avoided a direct reply, +however, by playfully wondering how Mrs. Bradley could subject her +husband to Miss Minty's undivided fascinations. + +"Oh, Jim always takes her home--if it's in the evening. He gets +along with these people better than we do," returned Mrs. Bradley, +dryly. "But," she added, with a return of her piquant Quaker-like +coquettishness, "Jim says we are to devote ourselves to you to- +night--in retaliation, I suppose. We are to amuse you, and not let +you get excited; and you are to be sent to bed early." + +It is to be feared that these latter wise precautions--invaluable +for all defenceless and enfeebled humanity--were not carried out: +and it was late when Mainwaring eventually retired, with brightened +eyes and a somewhat accelerated pulse. For the ladies, who had +quite regained that kindly equanimity which Minty had rudely +interrupted, had also added a delicate and confidential sympathy in +their relations with Mainwaring,--as of people who had suffered in +common,--and he experienced these tender attentions at their hands +which any two women are emboldened by each other's saving presence +to show any single member of our sex. Indeed, he hardly knew +if his satisfaction was the more complete when Mrs. Bradley, +withdrawing for a few moments, left him alone on the veranda with +Louise and the vast, omnipotent night. + +For a while they sat silent, in the midst of the profound and +measureless calm. Looking down upon the dim moonlit abyss at their +feet, they themselves seemed a part of this night that arched above +it; the half-risen moon appeared to linger long enough at their +side to enwrap and suffuse them with its glory; a few bright stars +quietly ringed themselves around them, and looked wonderingly into +the level of their own shining eyes. For some vague yearning to +humanity seemed to draw this dark and passionless void towards +them. The vast protecting maternity of Nature leant hushed and +breathless over the solitude. Warm currents of air rose +occasionally from the valley, which one might have believed were +sighs from its full and overflowing breast, or a grateful coolness +swept their cheeks and hair when the tranquil heights around them +were moved to slowly respond. Odors from invisible bay and laurel +sometimes filled the air; the incense of some rare and remoter +cultivated meadow beyond their ken, or the strong germinating +breath of leagues of wild oats, that had yellowed the upland by +day. In the silence and shadow, their voices took upon themselves, +almost without their volition, a far-off confidential murmur, with +intervals of meaning silence--rather as if their thoughts had +spoken for themselves, and they had stopped wonderingly to listen. +They talked at first vaguely to this discreet audience of space and +darkness, and then, growing bolder, spoke to each other and of +themselves. Invested by the infinite gravity of nature, they had +no fear of human ridicule to restrain their youthful conceit or the +extravagance of their unimportant confessions. They talked of +their tastes, of their habits, of their friends and acquaintances. +They settled some points of doctrine, duty, and etiquette, with the +sweet seriousness of youth and its all-powerful convictions. The +listening vines would have recognized no flirtation or love-making +in their animated but important confidences; yet when Mrs. Bradley +reappeared to warn the invalid that it was time to seek his couch, +they both coughed slightly in the nervous consciousness of some +unaccustomed quality in their voices, and a sense of interruption +far beyond their own or the innocent intruder's ken. + +"Well?" said Mrs. Bradley, in the sitting-room as Mainwaring's +steps retreated down the passage to his room. + +"Well," said Louise with a slight yawn, leaning her pretty +shoulders languidly against the door-post, as she shaded her +moonlight-accustomed eyes from the vulgar brilliancy of Mrs. +Bradley's bedroom candle. "Well--oh, he talked a great deal about +'his people' as he called them, and I talked about us. He's very +nice. You know in some things he's really like a boy." + +"He looks much better." + +"Yes; but he is far from strong yet." + +Meantime, Mainwaring had no other confidant of his impressions than +his own thoughts. Mingled with his exaltation, which was the more +seductive that it had no well-defined foundation for existing, and +implied no future responsibility, was a recurrence of his uneasiness +at the impending visit of Richardson the next day. Strangely enough, +it had increased under the stimulus of the evening. Just as he was +really getting on with the family, he felt sure that this visitor +would import some foreign element into their familiarity, as Minty +had done. It was possible they would not like him: now he +remembered there was really something ostentatiously British and +insular about this Richardson--something they would likely resent. +Why couldn't this fellow have come later--or even before? Before +what? But here he fell asleep, and almost instantly slipped from +this veranda in the Sierras, six thousand miles away, to an ancient +terrace, overgrown with moss and tradition, that overlooked the +sedate glory of an English park. Here he found himself, restricted +painfully by his inconsistent night-clothes, endeavoring to impress +his mother and sisters with the singular virtues and excellences of +his American host and hostesses--virtues and excellences that he +himself was beginning to feel conscious had become more or less +apocryphal in that atmosphere. He heard his mother's voice saying +severely, "When you learn, Francis, to respect the opinions and +prejudices of your family enough to prevent your appearing before +them in this uncivilized aboriginal costume, we will listen to what +you have to say of the friends whose habits you seem to have +adopted;" and he was frantically indignant that his efforts to +convince them that his negligence was a personal oversight, and not +a Californian custom, were utterly futile. But even then this +vision was brushed away by the bewildering sweep of Louise's pretty +skirt across the dreamy picture, and her delicate features and +softly-fringed eyes remained the last to slip from his fading +consciousness. + +The moon rose higher and higher above the sleeping house and softly +breathing canyon. There was nothing to mar the idyllic repose of +the landscape; only the growing light of the last two hours had +brought out in the far eastern horizon a dim white peak, that +gleamed faintly among the stars, like a bridal couch spread between +the hills fringed with fading nuptial torches. No one would have +believed that behind that impenetrable shadow to the west, in the +heart of the forest, the throbbing saw-mill of James Bradley was +even at that moment eating its destructive way through the +conserved growth of Nature and centuries, and that the refined +proprietor of house and greenwood, with the glow of his furnace +fires on his red shirt, and his alert, intelligent eyes, was the +genie of that devastation, and the toiling leader of the shadowy, +toiling figures around him. + + +CHAPTER III. + + +Amid the beauty of the most uncultivated and untrodden wilderness +there are certain localities where the meaner and mere common +processes of Nature take upon themselves a degrading likeness to +the slovenly, wasteful, and improvident processes of man. The +unrecorded land-slip disintegrating a whole hillside will not only +lay bare the delicate framework of strata and deposit to the vulgar +eye, but hurl into the valley a debris so monstrous and unlovely as +to shame even the hideous ruins left by dynamite, hydraulic, or +pick and shovel; an overflown and forgotten woodland torrent will +leave in some remote hollow a disturbed and ungraceful chaos of +inextricable logs, branches, rock, and soil that will rival the +unsavory details of some wrecked or abandoned settlement. Of +lesser magnitude and importance, there are certain natural dust- +heaps, sinks, and cesspools, where the elements have collected the +cast-off, broken, and frayed disjecta of wood and field--the +sweepings of the sylvan household. It was remarkable that Nature, +so kindly considerate of mere human ruins, made no attempt to cover +up or disguise these monuments of her own mortality: no grass grew +over the unsightly landslides, no moss or ivy clothed the stripped +and bleached skeletons of overthrown branch and tree; the dead +leaves and withered husks rotted in their open grave uncrossed by +vine and creeper. Even the animals, except the lower organizations, +shunned those haunts of decay and ruin. + +It was scarcely a hundred yards from one of those dreary +receptacles that Mr. Bradley had taken leave of Miss Minty Sharpe. +The cabin occupied by her father, herself, and a younger brother +stood, in fact, on the very edge of the little hollow, which was +partly filled with decayed wood, leaves, and displacements of the +crumbling bank, with the coal dust and ashes which Mr. Sharpe had +added from his forge, that stood a few paces distant at the corner +of a cross-road. The occupants of the cabin had also contributed +to the hollow the refuse of their household in broken boxes, +earthenware, tin cans, and cast-off clothing; and it is not +improbable that the site of the cabin was chosen with reference to +this convenient disposal of useless and encumbering impedimenta. +It was true that the locality offered little choice in the way of +beauty. An outcrop of brown granite--a portent of higher +altitudes--extended a quarter of a mile from the nearest fringe of +dwarf laurel and "brush" in one direction; in the other an advanced +file of Bradley's woods had suffered from some long-forgotten fire, +and still raised its blackened masts and broken stumps over the +scorched and arid soil, swept of older underbrush and verdure. On +the other side of the road a dark ravine, tangled with briers and +haunted at night by owls and wild cats, struggled wearily on, until +blundering at last upon the edge of the Great Canyon, it slipped +and lost itself forever in a single furrow of those mighty flanks. +When Bradley had once asked Sharpe why he had not built his house +in the ravine, the blacksmith had replied: "That until the Lord had +appointed his time, he reckoned to keep his head above ground and +the foundations thereof." Howbeit, the ravine, or the "run," as it +was locally known, was Minty's only Saturday afternoon resort for +recreation or berries. "It was," she had explained, "pow'ful +soothin', and solitary." + +She entered the house--a rude, square building of unpainted boards-- +containing a sitting-room, a kitchen, and two bedrooms. A glance +at these rooms, which were plainly furnished, and whose canvas- +colored walls were adorned with gorgeous agricultural implement +circulars, patent medicine calendars, with polytinted chromos and +cheaply-illuminated Scriptural texts, showed her that a certain +neatness and order had been preserved during her absence; and, +finding the house empty, she crossed the barren and blackened +intervening space between the back door and her father's forge, and +entered the open shed. The light was fading from the sky; but the +glow of the forge lit up the dusty road before it, and accented the +blackness of the rocky ledge beyond. A small curly-headed boy, +bearing a singular likeness to a smudged and blackened crayon +drawing of Minty, was mechanically blowing the bellows and obviously +intent upon something else; while her father--a powerfully built +man, with a quaintly dissatisfied expression of countenance--was +with equal want of interest mechanically hammering at a horseshoe. +Without noticing Minty's advent, he lazily broke into a querulous +drawling chant of some vague religious character: + + + "O tur-ren, sinner; tur-ren. + For the Lord bids you turn--ah! + O tur-ren, sinner; tur-ren. + Why will you die?" + + +The musical accent adapted itself to the monotonous fall of the +sledge-hammer; and at every repetition of the word "turn" he suited +the action to the word by turning the horseshoe with the iron in +his left hand. A slight grunt at the end of every stroke, and the +simultaneous repetition of "turn" seemed to offer him amusement and +relief. Minty, without speaking, crossed the shop, and administered +a sound box on her brother's ear. "Take that, and let me ketch you +agen layin' low when my back's turned, to put on your store pants." + +"The others had fetched away in the laig," said the boy, opposing a +knee and elbow at acute angle to further attack. + +"You jest get and change 'em," said Minty. + +The sudden collapse of the bellows broke in upon the soothing +refrain of Mr. Sharpe, and caused him to turn also. + +"It's Minty," he said, replacing the horseshoe on the coals, and +setting his powerful arms and the sledge on the anvil with an +exaggerated expression of weariness. + +"Yes; it's me," said Minty, "and Creation knows it's time I DID +come, to keep that boy from ruinin' us with his airs and conceits." + +"Did ye bring over any o' that fever mixter?" + +"No. Bradley sez you're loading yerself up with so much o' that +bitter bark--kuinine they call it over there--that you'll lift the +ruff off your head next. He allows ye ain't got no ague; it's jest +wind and dyspepsy. He sez yer's strong ez a hoss." + +"Bradley," said Sharpe, laying aside his sledge with an aggrieved +manner which was, however, as complacent as his fatigue and +discontent, "ez one of them nat'ral born finikin skunks ez I +despise. I reckon he began to give p'ints to his parents when he +was about knee-high to Richelieu there. He's on them confidential +terms with hisself and the Almighty that he reckons he ken run a +saw-mill and a man's insides at the same time with one hand tied +behind him. And this finikin is up to his conceit: he wanted to +tell me that that yer handy brush dump outside our shanty was +unhealthy. Give a man with frills like that his own way and he'd +be a sprinkling odor cologne and peppermint all over the country." + +"He set your shoulder as well as any doctor," said Minty. + +"That's bone-settin', and a nat'ral gift," returned Sharpe, as +triumphantly as his habitual depression would admit; "it ain't +conceit and finikin got out o' books! Well," he added, after a +pause, "wot's happened?" + +Minty's face slightly changed. "Nothin'; I kem back to get some +things," she said shortly, moving away. + +"And ye saw HIM?" + +"Ye-e-s," drawled Minty, carelessly, still retreating. + +"Bixby was along here about noon. He says the stranger was suthin' +high and mighty in his own country, and them 'Frisco millionaires +are quite sweet on him. Where are ye goin'?" + +"In the house." + +"Well, look yer, Minty. Now that you're here, ye might get up a +batch o' hot biscuit for supper. Dinner was that promiscous and +experimental to-day, along o' Richelieu's nat'ral foolin', that I +think I could git outside of a little suthin' now, if only to prop +up a kind of innard sinkin' that takes me. Ye ken tell me the news +at supper." + +Later, however, when Mr. Sharpe had quitted his forge for the night +and, seated at his domestic board, was, with a dismal presentiment +of future indigestion, voraciously absorbing his favorite meal of +hot saleratus biscuits swimming in butter, he had apparently +forgotten his curiosity concerning Mainwaring and settled himself +to a complaining chronicle of the day's mishaps. "Nat'rally, +havin' an extra lot o' work on hand and no time for foolin', what +does that ornery Richelieu get up and do this mornin'? Ye know +them ridiklus specimens that he's been chippin' outer that ledge +that the yearth slipped from down the run, and litterin' up the +whole shanty with 'em. Well, darn my skin! if he didn't run a heap +of 'em, mixed up with coal, unbeknowned to me, in the forge, to +make what he called a 'fire essay' of 'em. Nat'rally, I couldn't +get a blessed iron hot, and didn't know what had gone of the fire, +or the coal either, for two hours, till I stopped work and raked +out the coal. That comes from his hangin' round that saw-mill in +the woods, and listenin' to Bradley's high-falutin' talk about +rocks and strata and sich." + +"But Bradley don't go a cent on minin', Pop," said Minty. "He sez +the woods is good enough for him; and there's millions to be made +when the railroad comes along, and timber's wanted." + +"But until then he's got to keep hisself, to pay wages, and keep +the mill runnin'. Onless it's, ez Bixby says, that he hopes to get +that Englishman to rope in some o' them 'Frisco friends of his to +take a hand. Ye didn't have any o' that kind o' talk, did ye?" + +"No; not THAT kind o' talk," said Minty. + +"Not THAT kind o' talk!" repeated her father with aggrieved +curiosity, "Wot kind, then?" + +"Well," said Minty, lifting her black eyes to her father's; "I +ain't no account, and you ain't no account either. You ain't got +no college education, ain't got no friends in 'Frisco, and ain't +got no high-toned style; I can't play the pianner, jabber French, +nor get French dresses. We ain't got no fancy 'Shallet,' as they +call it, with a first-class view of nothing; but only a shanty on +dry rock. But, afore I'D take advantage of a lazy, gawky boy--for +it ain't anything else, though he's good meanin' enough--that +happened to fall sick in MY house, and coax and cosset him, and +wrap him in white cotton, and mother him, and sister him, and Aunt +Sukey him, and almost dry-nuss him gin'rally, jist to get him sweet +on me and on mine, and take the inside track of others--I'D be an +Injin! And if you'd allow it, Pop, you'd be wuss nor a nigger!" + +"Sho!" said her father, kindling with that intense gratification +with which the male receives any intimation of alien feminine +weakness. "It ain't that, Minty, I wanter know!" + +"It's jist that, Pop; and I ez good ez let 'em know I seed it. I +ain't a fool, if some folks do drop their eyes and pertend to wipe +the laugh out of their noses with a handkerchief when I let out to +speak. I mayn't be good enough kempany--" + +"Look yer, Minty," interrupted the blacksmith, sternly, half rising +from his seat with every trace of his former weakness vanished from +his hardset face; "do you mean to say that they put on airs to ye-- +to MY darter?" + +"No," said Minty quickly; "the men didn't; and don't you, a man, +mix yourself up with women's meannesses. I ken manage 'em, Pop, +with one hand." + +Mr. Sharpe looked at his daughter's flashing black eyes. Perhaps +an uneasy recollection of the late Mrs. Sharpe's remarkable +capacity in that respect checked his further rage. + +"No. Wot I was sayin'," resumed Minty, "ez that I mayn't be +thought by others good enough to keep kempany with baronetts ez is +to be--though baronetts mightn't object--but I ain't mean enough to +try to steal away some ole woman's darling boy in England, or snatch +some likely young English girl's big brother outer the family +without sayin' by your leave. How'd you like it if Richelieu was +growed up, and went to sea,--and it would be like his peartness,-- +and he fell sick in some foreign land, and some princess or other +skyulged HIM underhand away from us?" + +Probably owing to the affair of the specimens, the elder Sharpe did +not seem to regard the possible mesalliance of Richelieu with +extraordinary disfavor. "That boy is conceited enough with hair +ile and fine clothes for anything," he said plaintively. "But +didn't that Louise Macy hev a feller already--that Captain Greyson? +Wot's gone o' him?" + +"That's it," said Minty: "he kin go out in the woods and whistle +now. But all the same, she could hitch him in again at any time if +the other stranger kicked over the traces. That's the style over +there at The Lookout. There ain't ez much heart in them two women +put together ez would make a green gal flush up playin' forfeits. +It's all in their breed, Pop. Love ain't going to spile their +appetites and complexions, give 'em nose-bleed, nor put a drop o' +water into their eyes in all their natural born days. That's wot +makes me mad. Ef I thought that Loo cared a bit for that child I +wouldn't mind; I'd just advise her to make him get up and get--pack +his duds out o' camp, and go home and not come back until he had a +written permit from his mother, or the other baronet in office." + +"Looks sorter ef some one orter interfere," said the blacksmith, +reflectively. "'Tain't exackly a case for a vigilance committee, +tho' it's agin public morals, this sorter kidnappin' o' strangers. +Looks ez if it might bring the country into discredit in England." + +"Well, don't YOU go and interfere and havin' folks say ez my nose +was put out o' jint over there," said Minty, curtly. "There's +another Englishman comin' up from 'Frisco to see him to-morrow. Ef +he ain't scooped up by Jenny Bradley he'll guess there's a nigger +in the fence somewhere. But there, Pop, let it drop. It's a bad +aig, anyway," she concluded, rising from the table, and passing her +hands down her frock and her shapely hips, as if to wipe off +further contamination of the subject. "Where's Richelieu agin?" + +"Said he didn't want supper, and like ez not he's gone over to see +that fammerly at the Summit. There's a little girl thar he's +sparkin', about his own age." + +"His own age!" said Minty, indignantly. "Why, she's double that, +if she's a day. Well--if he ain't the triflinest, conceitednest +little limb that ever grew! I'd like to know where he got it from-- +it wasn't mar's style." + +Mr. Sharpe smiled darkly. Richelieu's precocious gallantry +evidently was not considered as gratuitous as his experimental +metallurgy. But as his eyes followed his daughter's wholesome, +Phyllis-like figure, a new idea took possession of him: needless to +say, however, it was in the line of another personal aggrievement, +albeit it took the form of religious reflection. + +"It's curous, Minty, wot's foreordained, and wot ain't. Now, yer's +one of them high and mighty fellows, after the Lord, ez comes +meanderin' around here, and drops off--ez fur ez I kin hear--in a +kind o' faint at the first house he kems to, and is taken in and +lodged and sumptuously fed; and, nat'rally, they gets their reward +for it. Now wot's to hev kept that young feller from coming HERE +and droppin' down in my forge, or in this very room, and YOU a +tendin' him, and jist layin' over them folks at The Lookout?" + +"Wot's got hold o' ye, Pop? Don't I tell ye he had a letter to Jim +Bradley?" said Minty, quickly, with an angry flash of color in her +cheek. + +"That ain't it," said Sharpe confidently; "it's cos he WALKED. +Nat'rally, you'd think he'd RIDE, being high and mighty, and that's +where, ez the parson will tell ye, wot's merely fi-nite and human +wisdom errs! Ef that feller had ridden, he'd have had to come by +this yer road, and by this yer forge, and stop a spell like any +other. But it was foreordained that he should walk, jest cos it +wasn't generally kalkilated and reckoned on. So, YOU had no show." + +For a moment, Minty seemed struck with her father's original +theory. But with a vigorous shake of her shoulders she threw it +off. Her eyes darkened. + +"I reckon you ain't thinking, Pop--" she began. + +"I was only sayin' it was curous," be rejoined quietly. +Nevertheless, after a pause, he rose, coughed, and going up to the +young girl, as she leaned over the dresser, bent his powerful arm +around her, and, drawing her and the plate she was holding against +his breast, laid his bearded cheek for an instant softly upon her +rebellious head. "It's all right, Minty," he said; "ain't it, +pet?" Minty's eyelids closed gently under the familiar pressure. +"Wot's that in your hair, Minty?" he said tactfully, breaking an +embarrassing pause. + +"Bar's grease, father," murmured Minty, in a child's voice--the +grown-up woman, under that magic touch, having lapsed again into +her father's motherless charge of ten years before. + +"It's pow'ful soothin', and pretty," said her father. + +"I made it myself--do you want some?" asked Minty. + +"Not now, girl!" For a moment they slightly rocked each other in +that attitude--the man dexterously, the woman with infinite +tenderness--and then they separated. + +Late that night, after Richelieu had returned, and her father +wrestled in his fitful sleep with the remorse of his guilty +indulgence at supper, Minty remained alone in her room, hard at +work, surrounded by the contents of one of her mother's trunks and +the fragments of certain ripped-up and newly-turned dresses. For +Minty had conceived the bold idea of altering one of her mother's +gowns to the fashion of a certain fascinating frock worn by Louise +Macy. It was late when her self-imposed task was completed. With +a nervous trepidation that was novel to her, Minty began to disrobe +herself preparatory to trying on her new creation. The light of a +tallow candle and a large swinging lantern, borrowed from her +father's forge, fell shyly on her milky neck and shoulders, and +shone in her sparkling eyes, as she stood before her largest +mirror--the long glazed door of a kitchen clock which she had +placed upon her chest of drawers. Had poor Minty been content with +the full, free, and goddess-like outlines that it reflected, she +would have been spared her impending disappointment. For, alas! +the dress of her model had been framed upon a symmetrically +attenuated French corset, and the unfortunate Minty's fuller and +ampler curves had under her simple country stays known no more +restraining cincture than knew the Venus of Milo. The alteration +was a hideous failure, it was neither Minty's statuesque outline +nor Louise Macy's graceful contour. Minty was no fool, and the +revelation of this slow education of the figure and training of +outline--whether fair or false in art--struck her quick intelligence +with all its full and hopeless significance. A bitter light sprang +to her eyes; she tore the wretched sham from her shoulders, and then +wrapping a shawl around her, threw herself heavily and sullenly on +the bed. But inaction was not a characteristic of Minty's emotion; +she presently rose again, and, taking an old work-box from her +trunk, began to rummage in its recesses. It was an old shell- +incrusted affair, and the apparent receptacle of such cheap odds and +ends of jewelry as she possessed; a hideous cameo ring, the property +of the late Mrs. Sharpe, was missing. She again rapidly explored +the contents of the box, and then an inspiration seized her, and she +darted into her brother's bedroom. + +That precocious and gallant Lovelace of ten, despite all sentiment, +had basely succumbed to the gross materialism of youthful slumber. +On a cot in the corner, half hidden under the wreck of his own +careless and hurried disrobing, with one arm hanging out of the +coverlid, Richelieu lay supremely unconscious. On the forefinger +of his small but dirty hand the missing cameo was still glittering +guiltily. With a swift movement of indignation Minty rushed with +uplifted palm towards the tempting expanse of youthful cheek that +lay invitingly exposed upon the pillow. Then she stopped suddenly. + +She had seen him lying thus a hundred times before. On the pillow +near him an indistinguishable mass of golden fur--the helpless bulk +of a squirrel chained to the leg of his cot; at his feet a wall- +eyed cat, who had followed his tyrannous caprices with the long- +suffering devotion of her sex; on the shelf above him a loathsome +collection of flies and tarantulas in dull green bottles: a slab of +ginger-bread for light nocturnal refection, and her own pot of +bear's grease. Perhaps it was the piteous defencelessness of +youthful sleep, perhaps it was some lingering memory of her +father's caress; but as she gazed at him with troubled eyes, the +juvenile reprobate slipped back into the baby-boy that she had +carried in her own childish arms such a short time ago, when the +maternal responsibility had descended with the dead mother's ill- +fitting dresses upon her lank girlish figure and scant virgin +breast--and her hand fell listlessly at her side. + +The sleeper stirred slightly and awoke. At the same moment, by +some mysterious sympathy, a pair of beady bright eyes appeared in +the bulk of fur near his curls, the cat stretched herself, and even +a vague agitation was heard in the bottles on the shelf. Richelieu's +blinking eyes wandered from the candle to his sister, and then +the guilty hand was suddenly withdrawn under the bedclothes. + +"No matter, dear," said Minty; "it's mar's, and you kin wear it +when you like, if you'll only ask for it." + +Richelieu wondered if he was dreaming! This unexpected mildness-- +this inexplicable tremor in his sister's voice: it must be some +occult influence of the night season on the sisterly mind, possibly +akin to a fear of ghosts! He made a mental note of it in view of +future favors, yet for the moment he felt embarrassedly gratified. +"Ye ain't wantin' anything, Minty," he said affectionately; "a pail +o' cold water from the far spring--no nothin'?" He made an +ostentatious movement as if to rise, yet sufficiently protracted to +prevent any hasty acceptance of his prodigal offer. + +"No, dear," she said, still gazing at him with an absorbed look in +her dark eyes. + +Richelieu felt a slight creepy sensation under that lonely far-off +gaze. "Your eyes look awful big at night, Minty," he said. He +would have added "and pretty," but she was his sister, and he had +the lofty fraternal conviction of his duty in repressing the +inordinate vanity of the sex. "Ye're sure ye ain't wantin' +nothin'?" + +"Not now, dear." She paused a moment, and then said deliberately: +"But you wouldn't mind turnin' out after sun-up and runnin' an +errand for me over to The Lookout?" + +Richelieu's eyes sparkled so suddenly that even in her absorption +Minty noticed the change. "But ye're not goin' to tarry over +there, ner gossip--you hear? Yer to take this yer message. Yer to +say 'that it will be onpossible for me to come back there, on +account--on account of--'" + +"Important business," suggested Richelieu; "that's the perlite +style." + +"Ef you like." She leaned over the bed and put her lips to his +forehead, still damp with the dews of sleep, and then to his long- +lashed lids. "Mind Nip!"--the squirrel--he practically suggested. +For an instant their blond curls mingled on the pillow. "Now go to +sleep," she said curtly. + +But Richelieu had taken her white neck in the short strangulatory +hug of the small boy, and held her fast. "Ye'll let me put on my +best pants?" + +"Yes." + +"And wear that ring?" + +"Yes"--a little sadly. + +"Then yer kin count me in, Minty; and see here"--his voice sank to +a confidential whisper--"mebbee some day ye'll be beholden to ME +for a lot o' real jewelry." + +She returned slowly to her room, and, opening the window, looked +out upon the night. The same moon that had lent such supererogatory +grace to the natural beauty of The Lookout, here seemed to have +failed; as Minty had, in disguising the relentless limitations of +Nature or the cruel bonds of custom. The black plain of granite, +under its rays, appeared only to extend its poverty to some remoter +barrier; the blackened stumps of the burnt forest stood bleaker +against the sky, like broken and twisted pillars of iron. The +cavity of the broken ledge where Richelieu had prospected was a +hideous chasm of bluish blackness, over which a purple vapor seemed +to hover; the "brush dump" beside the house showed a cavern of +writhing and distorted objects stiffened into dark rigidity. She +had often looked upon the prospect: it had never seemed so hard and +changeless; yet she accepted it, as she had accepted it before. + +She turned away, undressed herself mechanically, and went to bed. +She had an idea that she had been very foolish; that her escape +from being still more foolish was something miraculous, and in some +measure connected with Providence, her father, her little brother, +and her dead mother, whose dress she had recklessly spoiled. But +that she had even so slightly touched the bitterness and glory of +renunciation--as written of heroines and fine ladies by novelists +and poets--never entered the foolish head of Minty Sharpe, the +blacksmith's daughter. + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +It was a little after daybreak next morning that Mainwaring awoke +from the first unrefreshing night he had passed at The Lookout. He +was so feverish and restless that he dressed himself at sunrise, and +cautiously stepped out upon the still silent veranda. The chairs +which he and Louise Macy had occupied were still, it seemed to him, +conspicuously confidential with each other, and he separated them, +but as he looked down into the Great Canyon at his feet he was +conscious of some undefinable change in the prospect. A slight mist +was rising from the valley, as if it were the last of last night's +illusions; the first level sunbeams were obtrusively searching, and +the keen morning air had a dryly practical insistence which +irritated him, until a light footstep on the farther end of the +veranda caused him to turn sharply. + +It was the singular apparition of a small boy, bearing a surprising +resemblance to Minty Sharpe, and dressed in an unique fashion. On +a tumbled sea of blond curls a "chip" sailor hat, with a broad red +ribbon, rode jauntily. But here the nautical suggestion changed, +as had the desire of becoming a pirate which induced it. A red +shirt, with a white collar, and a yellow plaid ribbon tie, that +also recalled Minty Sharpe, lightly turned the suggestion of his +costume to mining. Short black velvet trousers, coming to his +knee, and ostentatiously new short-legged boots, with visible +straps like curling ears, completed the entirely original character +of his lower limbs. + +Mainwaring, always easily gentle and familiar with children and his +inferiors, looked at him with an encouraging smile. Richelieu--for +it was he--advanced gravely and held out his hand, with the cameo +ring apparent. Mainwaring, with equal gravity, shook it warmly, +and removed his hat. Richelieu, keenly observant, did the same. + +"Is Jim Bradley out yet?" asked Richelieu, carelessly. + +"No; I think not. But I'm Frank Mainwaring. Will I do?" + +Richelieu smiled. The dimples, the white teeth, the dark, laughing +eyes, were surely Minty's? + +"I'm Richelieu," he rejoined with equal candor. + +"Richelieu?" + +"Yes. That Frenchman--the Lord Cardinal--you know. Mar saw +Forrest do him out in St. Louis." + +"Do him?" + +"Yes, in the theayter." + +With a confused misconception of his meaning, Mainwaring tried to +recall the historical dress of the great Cardinal and fit it to the +masquerader--if such he were--before him. But Richelieu relieved +him by adding,-- + +"Richelieu Sharpe." + +"Oh, that's your NAME!" said Mainwaring, cheerfully. "Then you're +Miss Minty's brother. I know her. How jolly lucky!" + +They both shook hands again. Richelieu, eager to get rid of the +burden of his sister's message, which he felt was in the way of +free-and-easy intercourse with this charming stranger, looked +uneasily towards the house. + +"I say," said Mainwaring, "if you're in a hurry, you'd better go in +there and knock. I hear some one stirring in the kitchen." + +Richelieu nodded, but first went back to the steps of the veranda, +picked up a small blue knotted handkerchief, apparently containing +some heavy objects, and repassed Mainwaring. + +"What! have you cut it, Richelieu, with your valuables? What have +you got there?" + +"Specimins," said Richelieu, shortly, and vanished. + +He returned presently. "Well, Cardinal, did you see anybody?" +asked Mainwaring. + +"Mrs. Bradley; but Jim's over to the mill. I'm goin' there." + +"Did you see Miss Macy?" continued Mainwaring, carelessly. + +"Loo?" + +"Loo!--well; yes." + +"No. She's philanderin' with Captain Greyson." + +"Philandering with Greyson?" echoed Mainwaring, in wonder. + +"Yes; on horseback on the ridge." + +"You mean she's riding out with Mr.--with Captain Greyson?" + +"Yes; ridin' AND philanderin'," persisted Richelieu. + +"And what do you call philandering?" + +"Well; I reckon you and she oughter know," returned Richelieu, with +a precocious air. + +"Certainly," said Mainwaring, with a faint smile. Richelieu really +was like Minty. + +There was a long silence. This young Englishman was becoming +exceedingly uninteresting. Richelieu felt that he was gaining +neither profit nor amusement, and losing time. "I'm going," he +said. + +"Good morning," said Mainwaring, without looking up. + +Richelieu picked up his specimens, thoroughly convinced of the +stranger's glittering deceitfulness, and vanished. + +It was nearly eight o'clock when Mrs. Bradley came from the house. +She apologized, with a slightly distrait smile, for the tardiness +of the household. "Mr. Bradley stayed at the mill all night, and +will not be here until breakfast, when he brings your friend Mr. +Richardson with him"--Mainwaring scarcely repressed a movement of +impatience--"who arrives early. It's unfortunate that Miss Sharpe +can't come to-day." + +In his abstraction Mainwaring did not notice that Mrs. Bradley +slightly accented Minty's formal appellation, and said carelessly,-- + +"Oh, that's why her brother came over here so early!" + +"Did YOU see him?" asked Mrs. Bradley, almost abruptly. + +"Yes. He is an amusing little beggar; but I think he shares his +sister's preference for Mr. Bradley. He deserted me here in the +veranda for him at the mill." + +"Louise will keep you company as soon as she has changed her +dress," continued Mrs. Bradley. "She was out riding early this +morning with a friend. She's very fond of early morning rides." + +"AND philandering," repeated Mainwaring to himself. It was quite +natural for Miss Macy to ride out in the morning, after the fashion +of the country, with an escort; but why had the cub insisted on the +"philandering"? He had said, "AND philandering," distinctly. It +was a nasty thing for him to say. Any other fellow but he, +Mainwaring, might misunderstand the whole thing. Perhaps he ought +to warn her--but no! he could not repeat the gossip of a child, and +that child the brother of one of her inferiors. But was Minty an +inferior? Did she and Minty talk together about this fellow +Greyson? At all events, it would only revive the awkwardness of +the preceding day, and he resolved to say nothing. + +He was rewarded by a half-inquiring, half-confiding look in +Louise's bright eyes, when she presently greeted him on the +veranda. "She had quite forgotten," she said, "to tell him last +night of her morning's engagement; indeed, she had half forgotten +IT. It used to be a favorite practice of hers, with Captain +Greyson; but she had lately given it up. She believed she had not +ridden since--since--" + +"Since when?" asked Mainwaring. + +"Well, since you were ill," she said frankly. + +A quick pleasure shone in Mainwaring's cheek and eye; but Louise's +pretty lids did not drop, nor her faint, quiet bloom deepen. +Breakfast was already waiting when Mr. Richardson arrived alone. + +He explained that Mr. Bradley had some important and unexpected +business which had delayed him, but which, he added, "Mr. Bradley +says may prove interesting enough to you to excuse his absence this +morning." Mainwaring was not displeased that his critical and +observant host was not present at their meeting. Louise Macy was, +however, as demurely conscious of the different bearing of the two +compatriots. Richardson's somewhat self-important patronage of +the two ladies, and that Californian familiarity he had acquired, +changed to a certain uneasy deference towards Mainwaring; while the +younger Englishman's slightly stiff and deliberate cordiality was, +nevertheless, mingled with a mysterious understanding that appeared +innate and unconscious. Louise was quick to see that these two +men, more widely divergent in quality than any two of her own +countrymen, were yet more subtly connected by some unknown sympathy +than the most equal of Americans. Minty's prophetic belief of the +effect of the two women upon Richardson was certainly true as +regarded Mrs. Bradley. The banker--a large material nature--was +quickly fascinated by the demure, puritanic graces of that lady, +and was inclined to exhibit a somewhat broad and ostentatious +gallantry that annoyed Mainwaring. When they were seated alone +on the veranda, which the ladies had discreetly left to them, +Richardson said,-- + +"Odd I didn't hear of Bradley's wife before. She seems a spicy, +pretty, comfortable creature. Regularly thrown away with him up +here." + +Mainwaring replied coldly that she was "an admirable helpmeet of a +very admirable man," not, however, without an uneasy recollection +of her previous confidences respecting her husband. "They have +been most thoroughly good and kind to me; my own brother and sister +could not have done more. And certainly not with better taste or +delicacy," he added, markedly. + +"Certainly, certainly," said Richardson, hurriedly. "I wrote to +Lady Mainwaring that you were taken capital care of by some very +honest people; and that--" + +"Lady Mainwaring already knows what I think of them, and what she +owes to their kindness," said Mainwaring, dryly. + +"True, true," said Richardson, apologetically. "Of course you must +have seen a good deal of them. I only know Bradley in a business +way. He's been trying to get the Bank to help him to put up some +new mills here; but we didn't see it. I dare say he is good +company--rather amusing, eh?" + +Mainwaring had the gift of his class of snubbing by the polite and +forgiving oblivion of silence. Richardson shifted uneasily in his +chair, but continued with assumed carelessness:-- + +"No; I only knew of this cousin, Miss Macy. I heard of her when +she was visiting some friends in Menlo Park last year. Rather an +attractive girl. They say Colonel Johnson, of Sacramento, took +quite a fancy to her--it would have been a good match, I dare say, +for he is very rich--but the thing fell through in some way. Then, +they say, SHE wanted to marry that Spaniard, young Pico, of the +Amador Ranche; but his family wouldn't hear of it. Somehow, she's +deuced unlucky. I suppose she'll make a mess of it with Captain +Greyson she was out riding with this morning." + +"Didn't the Bank think Bradley's mills a good investment?" asked +Mainwaring quietly, when Richardson paused. + +"Not with him in it; he is not a business man, you know." + +"I thought he was. He seems to me an energetic man, who knows his +work, and is not afraid to look after it himself." + +"That's just it. He has got absurd ideas of co-operating with his +workmen, you know, and doing everything slowly and on a limited +scale. The only thing to be done is to buy up all the land on this +ridge, run off the settlers, freeze out all the other mills, and +put it into a big San Francisco company on shares. That's the only +way we would look at it." + +"But you don't consider the investment bad, even from HIS point of +view?" + +"Perhaps not." + +"And you only decline it because it isn't big enough for the Bank?" + +"Exactly." + +"Richardson," said Mainwaring, slowly rising, putting his hands in +his trousers pockets, and suddenly looking down upon the banker +from the easy level of habitual superiority, "I wish you'd attend +to this thing for me. I desire to make some return to Mr. Bradley +for his kindness. I wish to give him what help he wants--in his +own way--you understand. I wish it, and I believe my father wishes +it, too. If you'd like him to write to you to that effect--" + +"By no means, it's not at all necessary," said Richardson, dropping +with equal suddenness into his old-world obsequiousness. "I shall +certainly do as you wish. It is not a bad investment, Mr. +Mainwaring, and as you suggest, a very proper return for their +kindness. And, being here, it will come quite naturally for me to +take up the affair again." + +"And--I say, Richardson." + +"Yes, sir?" + +"As these ladies are rather short-handed in their domestic service, +you know, perhaps you'd better not stay to luncheon or dinner, but +go on to the Summit House--it's only a mile or two farther--and +come back here this evening. I shan't want you until then." + +"Certainly!" stammered Richardson. "I'll just take leave of the +ladies!" + +"It's not at all necessary," said Mainwaring, quietly; "you would +only disturb them in their household duties. I'll tell them what +I've done with you, if they ask. You'll find your stick and hat in +the passage, and you can leave the veranda by these steps. By the +way, you had better manage at the Summit to get some one to bring +my traps from here to be forwarded to Sacramento to-morrow. I'll +want a conveyance, or a horse of some kind, myself, for I've given +up walking for a while; but we can settle about that to-night. +Come early. Good morning?" + +He accompanied his thoroughly subjugated countryman--who, however, +far from attempting to reassert himself, actually seemed easier and +more cheerful in his submission--to the end of the veranda, and +watched him depart. As he turned back, he saw the pretty figure of +Louise Macy leaning against the doorway. How graceful and refined +she looked in that simple morning dress! What wonder that she was +admired by Greyson, by Johnson, and by that Spaniard!--no, by Jove, +it was SHE that wanted to marry him! + +"What have you sent away Mr. Richardson for?" asked the young girl, +with a half-reproachful, half-mischievous look in her bright eyes. + +"I packed him off because I thought it was a little too hard on you +and Mrs. Bradley to entertain him without help." + +"But as he was OUR guest, you might have left that to us," said +Miss Macy. + +"By Jove! I never thought of that," said Mainwaring, coloring in +consternation. "Pray forgive me, Miss Macy--but you see I knew the +man, and could say it, and you couldn't." + +"Well, I forgive you, for you look really so cut up," said Louise, +laughing. "But I don't know what Jenny will say of your disposing +of her conquest so summarily." She stopped and regarded him more +attentively. "Has he brought you any bad news? if so, it's a pity +you didn't send him away before. He's quite spoiling our cure." + +Mainwaring thought bitterly that he had. "But it's a cure for all +that, Miss Macy," he said, with an attempt at cheerfulness, "and +being a cure, you see, there's no longer an excuse for my staying +here. I have been making arrangements for leaving here to-morrow." + +"So soon?" + +"Do you think it soon, Miss Macy?" asked Mainwaring, turning pale +in spite of himself. + +"I quite forgot--that you were here as an invalid only, and that we +owe our pleasure to the accident of your pain." + +She spoke a little artificially, he thought, yet her cheeks had not +lost their pink bloom, nor her eyes their tranquillity. Had he +heard Minty's criticism he might have believed that the organic +omission noticed by her was a fact. + +"And now that your good work as Sister of Charity is completed, +you'll be able to enter the world of gayety again with a clear +conscience," said Mainwaring, with a smile that he inwardly felt +was a miserable failure. "You'll be able to resume your morning +rides, you know, which the wretched invalid interrupted." + +Louise raised her clear eyes to his, without reproach, indignation, +or even wonder. He felt as if he had attempted an insult and +failed. + +"Does my cousin know you are going so soon?" she asked finally. + +"No, I did not know myself until to-day. You see," he added +hastily, while his honest blood blazoned the lie in his cheek, +"I've heard of some miserable business affairs that will bring me +back to England sooner that I expected." + +"I think you should consider your health more important than any +mere business," said Louise. "I don't mean that you should remain +HERE," she added with a hasty laugh, "but it would be a pity, now +that you have reaped the benefit of rest and taking care of +yourself, that you should not make it your only business to seek it +elsewhere." + +Mainwaring longed to say that within the last half hour, living or +dying had become of little moment to him; but he doubted the truth +or efficacy of this timeworn heroic of passion. He felt, too, that +anything he said was a mere subterfuge for the real reason of his +sudden departure. And how was he to question her as to that +reason? In escaping from these subterfuges--he was compelled to +lie again. With an assumption of changing the subject, he said +calmly, "Richardson thought he had met you before--in Menlo Park, I +think." + +Amazed at the evident irrelevance of the remark, Louise said +coldly, that she did not remember having seen him before. + +"I think it was at a Mr. Johnson's--or WITH a Mr. Johnson--or +perhaps at one of those Spanish ranches--I think he mentioned some +name like Pico!" + +Louise looked at him wonderingly for an instant, and then gave way +to a frank, irrepressible laugh, which lent her delicate but rather +set little face all the color he had missed. Partially relieved by +her unconcern, and yet mortified that he had only provoked her +sense of the ludicrous, he tried to laugh also. + +"Then, to be quite plain," said Louise, wiping her now humid eyes, +"you want me to understand that you really didn't pay sufficient +attention to hear correctly! Thank you; that's a pretty English +compliment, I suppose." + +"I dare say you wouldn't call it 'philandering'?" + +"I certainly shouldn't, for I don't know what 'philandering' +means." + +Mainwaring could not reply, with Richelieu, "You ought to know"; +nor did he dare explain what he thought it meant, and how he knew +it. Louise, however, innocently solved the difficulty. + +"There's a country song I've heard Minty sing," she said. "It +runs-- + + + Come, Philander, let us be a-marchin', + Every one for his true love a-sarchin' + Choose your true love now or never. . . . + + +Have you been listening to her also?" + +"No," said Mainwaring, with a sudden incomprehensible, but utterly +irrepressible, resolution; "but I'M 'a-marchin',' you know, and +perhaps I must 'choose my true love now or never.' Will you help +me, Miss Macy?" + +He drew gently near her. He had become quite white, but also +very manly, and it struck her, more deeply, thoroughly, and +conscientiously sincere than any man who had before addressed her. +She moved slightly away, as if to rest herself by laying both hands +upon the back of the chair. + +"Where do you expect to begin your 'sarchin''?" she said, leaning +on the chair and tilting it before her; "or are you as vague as +usual as to locality? Is it at some 'Mr. Johnson' or 'Mr. Pico,' +or--" + +"Here," he interrupted boldly. + +"I really think you ought to first tell my cousin that you are +going away to-morrow," she said, with a faint smile. "It's such +short notice. She's just in there." She nodded her pretty head, +without raising her eyes, towards the hall. + +"But it may not be so soon," said Mainwaring. + +"Oh, then the 'sarchin'' is not so important?" said Louise, raising +her head, and looking towards the hall with some uneasy but +indefinable feminine instinct. + +She was right; the sitting-room door opened, and Mrs. Bradley made +her smiling appearance. + +"Mr. Mainwaring was just looking for you," said Louise, for the +first time raising her eyes to him. "He's not only sent off Mr. +Richardson, but he's going away himself to-morrow." + +Mrs. Bradley looked from the one to the other in mute wonder. +Mainwaring cast an imploring glance at Louise, which had the +desired effect. Much more seriously, and in a quaint, business- +like way, the young girl took it upon herself to explain to Mrs. +Bradley that Richardson had brought the invalid some important news +that would, unfortunately, not only shorten his stay in America, +but even compel him to leave The Lookout sooner than he expected, +perhaps to-morrow. Mainwaring thanked her with his eyes, and then +turned to Mrs. Bradley. + +"Whether I go to-morrow or next day," he said with simple and +earnest directness, "I intend, you know, to see you soon again, +either here or in my own home in England. I do not know," he added +with marked gravity, "that I have succeeded in convincing you that +I have made your family already well known to my people, and that"-- +he fixed his eyes with a meaning look on Louise--"no matter when, +or in what way, you come to them, your place is made ready for you. +You may not like them, you know: the governor is getting to be an +old man--perhaps too old for young Americans--but THEY will like +YOU, and you must put up with that. My mother and sisters know +Miss Macy as well as I do, and will make her one of the family." + +The conscientious earnestness with which these apparent +conventionalities were uttered, and some occult quality of quiet +conviction in the young man's manner, brought a pleasant sparkle to +the eyes of Mrs. Bradley and Louise. + +"But," said Mrs. Bradley, gayly, "our going to England is quite +beyond our present wildest dreams; nothing but a windfall, an +unexpected rise in timber, or even the tabooed hotel speculation, +could make it possible." + +"But I shall take the liberty of trying to present it to Mr. +Bradley tonight in some practical way that may convince even his +critical judgment," said Mainwaring, still seriously. "It will +be," he added more lightly, "the famous testimonial of my cure +which I promised you." + +"And you will find Mr. Bradley so sceptical that you will be +obliged to defer your going," said Mrs. Bradley, triumphantly. +"Come, Louise, we must not forget that we have still Mr. +Mainwaring's present comfort to look after; that Minty has basely +deserted us, and that we ourselves must see that the last days of +our guest beneath our roof are not remembered for their privation." + +She led Louise away with a half-mischievous suggestion of maternal +propriety, and left Mainwaring once more alone on the veranda. + +He had done it! Certainly she must have understood his meaning, +and there was nothing left for him to do but to acquaint Bradley +with his intentions to-night, and press her for a final answer in +the morning. There would be no indelicacy then in asking her for +an interview more free from interruption than this public veranda. +Without conceit, he did not doubt what the answer would be. His +indecision, his sudden resolution to leave her, had been all based +upon the uncertainty of HIS own feelings, the propriety of HIS +declaration, the possibility of some previous experience of hers +that might compromise HIM. Convinced by her unembarrassed manner +of her innocence, or rather satisfied of her indifference to +Richardson's gossip, he had been hurried by his feelings into an +unexpected avowal. Brought up in the perfect security of his own +social position, and familiarly conscious--without vanity--of its +importance and power in such a situation, he believed, without +undervaluing Louise's charms or independence, that he had no one +else than himself to consult. Even the slight uneasiness that +still pursued him was more due to his habitual conscientiousness of +his own intention than to any fear that she would not fully respond +to it. Indeed, with his conservative ideas of proper feminine +self-restraint, Louise's calm passivity and undemonstrative +attitude were a proof of her superiority; had she blushed overmuch, +cried, or thrown herself into his arms, he would have doubted the +wisdom of so easy a selection. It was true he had known her +scarcely three weeks; if he chose to be content with that, his own +accessible record of three centuries should be sufficient for her, +and condone any irregularity. + +Nevertheless, as an hour slipped away and Louise did not make her +appearance, either on the veranda or in the little sitting-room off +the hall, Mainwaring became more uneasy as to the incompleteness of +their interview. Perhaps a faint suspicion of the inadequacy of +her response began to trouble him; but he still fatuously regarded +it rather as owing to his own hurried and unfinished declaration. +It was true that he hadn't said half what he intended to say; it +was true that she might have misunderstood it as the conventional +gallantry of the situation, as--terrible thought!--the light banter +of the habitual love-making American, to which she had been +accustomed; perhaps even now she relegated him to the level of +Greyson, and this accounted for her singular impassiveness--an +impassiveness that certainly was singular now he reflected upon it-- +that might have been even contempt. The last thought pricked his +deep conscientiousness; he walked hurriedly up and down the +veranda, and then, suddenly re-entering his room, took up a sheet +of note-paper, and began to write to her:-- + + +"Can you grant me a few moments' interview alone? I cannot bear +you should think that what I was trying to tell you when we were +interrupted was prompted by anything but the deepest sincerity and +conviction, or that I am willing it should be passed over lightly +by you or be forgotten. Pray give me a chance of proving it, by +saying you will see me. F. M." + + +But how should he convey this to her? His delicacy revolted +against handing it to her behind Mrs. Bradley's back, or the +prestidigitation of slipping it into her lap or under her plate +before them at luncheon; he thought for an instant of the Chinaman, +but gentlemen--except in that "mirror of nature" the stage--usually +hesitate to suborn other people's servants, or entrust a woman's +secret to her inferiors. He remembered that Louise's room was at +the farther end of the house, and its low window gave upon the +veranda, and was guarded at night by a film of white and blue +curtains that were parted during the day, to allow a triangular +revelation of a pale blue and white draped interior. Mainwaring +reflected that the low inside window ledge was easily accessible +from the veranda, would afford a capital lodgment for the note, and +be quickly seen by the fair occupant of the room on entering. He +sauntered slowly past the window; the room was empty, the moment +propitious. A slight breeze was stirring the blue ribbons of the +curtain; it would be necessary to secure the note with something; +he returned along the veranda to the steps, where he had noticed a +small irregular stone lying, which had evidently escaped from +Richelieu's bag of treasure specimens, and had been overlooked by +that ingenuous child. It was of a pretty peacock-blue color, and, +besides securing a paper, would be sure to attract her attention. +He placed his note on the inside ledge, and the blue stone atop, +and went away with a sense of relief. + +Another half hour passed without incident. He could hear the +voices of the two women in the kitchen and dining-room. After a +while they appeared to cease, and he heard the sound of an opening +door. It then occurred to him that the veranda was still too +exposed for a confidential interview, and he resolved to descend +the steps, pass before the windows of the kitchen where Louise +might see him, and penetrate the shrubbery, where she might be +induced to follow him. They would not be interrupted nor overheard +there. + +But he had barely left the veranda before the figure of Richelieu, +who had been patiently waiting for Mainwaring's disappearance, +emerged stealthily from the shrubbery. He had discovered his loss +on handing his "fire assays" to the good-humored Bradley for later +examination, and he had retraced his way, step by step, looking +everywhere for his missing stone with the unbounded hopefulness, +lazy persistency, and lofty disregard for time and occupation known +only to the genuine boy. He remembered to have placed his knotted +bag upon the veranda, and, slipping off his stiff boots slowly and +softly, slid along against the wall of the house, looking carefully +on the floor, and yet preserving a studied negligence of demeanor, +with one hand in his pocket, and his small mouth contracted into a +singularly soothing and almost voiceless whistle--Richelieu's own +peculiar accomplishment. But no stone appeared. Like most of his +genus he was superstitious, and repeated to himself the cabalistic +formula: "Losin's seekin's, findin's keepin's"--presumed to be of +great efficacy in such cases--with religious fervor. He had +laboriously reached the end of the veranda when he noticed the open +window of Louise's room, and stopped as a perfunctory duty to look +in. And then Richelieu Sharpe stood for an instant utterly +confounded and aghast at this crowning proof of the absolute infamy +and sickening enormity of Man. + +There was HIS stone--HIS, RICHELIEU'S, OWN SPECIMEN, carefully +gathered by himself and none other--and now stolen, abstracted, +"skyugled," "smouged," "hooked" by this "rotten, skunkified, long- +legged, splay-footed, hoss-laughin', nigger-toothed, or'nary +despot" And, worse than all, actually made to do infamous duty as +a love token"--a "candy-gift!"--a "philanderin' box" to HIS, +Richelieu's, girl--for Louise belonged to that innocent and vague +outside seraglio of Richelieu's boyish dreams--and put atop of a +letter to her! and Providence permitted such an outrage! "Wot was +he, Richelieu, sent to school for, and organized wickedness in the +shape of gorilla Injins like this allowed to ride high horses +rampant over Californey!" He looked at the heavens in mute appeal. +And then--Providence not immediately interfering--he thrust his own +small arm into the window, regained his priceless treasure, and +fled swiftly. + +A fateful silence ensued. The wind slightly moved the curtain +outward, as if in a playful attempt to follow him, and then +subsided. A moment later, apparently re-enforced by other winds, +or sympathizing with Richelieu, it lightly lifted the unlucky +missive and cast it softly from the window. But here another wind, +lying in wait, caught it cleverly, and tossed it, in a long curve, +into the abyss. For an instant it seemed to float lazily, as on +the mirrored surface of a lake, until, turning upon its side, it +suddenly darted into utter oblivion. + +When Mainwaring returned from the shrubbery, he went softly to the +window. The disappearance of the letter and stone satisfied him of +the success of his stratagem, and for the space of three hours +relieved his anxiety. But at the end of that time, finding no +response from Louise, his former uneasiness returned. Was she +offended, or--the first doubt of her acceptance of him crossed his +mind! + +A sudden and inexplicable sense of shame came upon him. At the +same moment, he heard his name called from the steps, turned--and +beheld Minty. + +Her dark eyes were shining with a pleasant light, and her lips +parted on her white teeth with a frank, happy smile. She advanced +and held out her hand. He took it with a mingling of disappointment +and embarrassment. + +"You're wondering why I kem on here, arter I sent word this morning +that I kelkilated not to come. Well, 'twixt then and now suthin' 's +happened. We've had fine doin's over at our house, you bet! +Pop don't know which end he's standin' on; and I reckon that for +about ten minutes I didn't know my own name. But ez soon ez I got +fairly hold o' the hull thing, and had it put straight in my mind, +I sez to myself, Minty Sharpe, sez I, the first thing for you to do +now, is to put on yer bonnet and shawl, and trapse over to Jim +Bradley's and help them two womenfolks get dinner for themselves +and that sick stranger. And," continued Minty, throwing herself +into a chair and fanning her glowing face with her apron, "yer I +am!" + +"But you have not told me WHAT has happened," said Mainwaring, with +a constrained smile, and an uneasy glance towards the house. + +"That's so," said Minty, with a brilliant laugh. "I clean forgot +the hull gist of the thing. Well, we're rich folks now--over thar' +on Barren Ledge! That onery brother of mine, Richelieu, hez taken +some of his specimens over to Jim Bradley to be tested. And +Bradley, just to please that child, takes 'em; and not an hour ago +Bradley comes running, likety switch, over to Pop to tell him to +put up his notices, for the hull of that ledge where the forge +stands is a mine o' silver and copper. Afore ye knew it, Lordy! +half the folks outer the Summit and the mill was scattered down +thar all over it. Richardson--that stranger ez knows you--kem thar +too with Jim, and he allows, ef Bradley's essay is right, it's +worth more than a hundred thousand dollars ez it stands!" + +"I suppose I must congratulate you, Miss Sharpe," said Mainwaring +with an attempt at interest, but his attention still preoccupied +with the open doorway. + +"Oh, THEY know all about it!" said Minty, following the direction +of his abstracted eyes with a slight darkening of her own, "I jest +kem out o' the kitchen the other way, and Jim sent 'em a note; but +I allowed I'd tell YOU myself. Specially ez you are going away +to-morrow." + +"Who said I was going away to-morrow?" asked Mainwaring, uneasily. + +"Loo Macy!" + +"Ah--she did? But I may change my mind, you know!" he continued, +with a faint smile. + +Minty shook her curls decisively. "I reckon SHE knows," she said +dryly, "she's got law and gospel for wot she says. But yer she +comes. Ask her! Look yer, Loo," she added, as the two women +appeared at the doorway, with a certain exaggeration of +congratulatory manner that struck Mainwaring as being as artificial +and disturbed as his own, "didn't Sir Francis yer say he was going +to-morrow?" + +"That's what I understood!" returned Louise, with cold astonishment, +letting her clear indifferent eyes fall upon Mainwaring. "I do +not know that he has changed his mind." + +"Unless, as Miss Sharpe is a great capitalist now, she is willing +to use her powers of persuasion," added Mrs. Bradley, with a slight +acidulous pointing of her usual prim playfulness. + +"I reckon Minty Sharpe's the same ez she allus wos, unless more +so," returned Minty, with an honest egotism that carried so much +conviction to the hearer as to condone its vanity. "But I kem yer +to do a day's work, gals, and I allow to pitch in and do it, and +not sit yer swoppin' compliments and keeping HIM from packin' his +duds. Onless," she stopped, and looked around at the uneasy, +unsympathetic circle with a faint tremulousness of lip that belied +the brave black eyes above it, "onless I'm in yer way." + +The two women sprang forward with a feminine bewildering excess of +protestation; and Mainwaring, suddenly pierced through his outer +selfish embarrassment to his more honest depths, stammered quickly-- + +"Look here, Miss Sharpe, if you think of running away again, after +having come all the way here to make us share the knowledge of your +good fortune and your better heart, by Jove! I'll go back with you." + +But here the two women effusively hurried her away from the dangerous +proximity of such sympathetic honesty, and a moment later Mainwaring +heard her laughing voice, as of old, ringing in the kitchen. And +then, as if unconsciously responding to the significant common sense +that lay in her last allusion to him, he went to his room and grimly +began his packing. + +He did not again see Louise alone. At their informal luncheon the +conversation turned upon the more absorbing topic of the Sharpes' +discovery, its extent, and its probable effect upon the fortunes of +the locality. He noticed, abstractedly, that both Mrs. Bradley and +her cousin showed a real or assumed scepticism of its value. This +did not disturb him greatly, except for its intended check upon +Minty's enthusiasm. He was more conscious, perhaps,--with a faint +touch of mortified vanity,--that his own contemplated departure was +of lesser importance than this local excitement. Yet in his +growing conviction that all was over--if, indeed, it had ever +begun--between himself and Louise, he was grateful to this natural +diversion of incident which spared them both an interval of +embarrassing commonplaces. And, with the suspicion of some +indefinable insincerity--either of his own or Louise's--haunting +him, Minty's frank heartiness and outspoken loyalty gave him a +strange relief. It seemed to him as if the clear cool breath of +the forest had entered with her homely garments, and the steadfast +truth of Nature were incarnate in her shining eyes. How far this +poetic fancy would have been consistent or even coexistent with any +gleam of tenderness or self-forgetfulness in Louise's equally +pretty orbs, I leave the satirical feminine reader to determine. + +It was late when Bradley at last returned, bringing further and +more complete corroboration of the truth of Sharpe's good fortune. +Two experts had arrived, one from Pine Flat and another from the +Summit, and upon this statement Richardson had offered to purchase +an interest in the discovery that would at once enable the +blacksmith to develop his mine. "I shouldn't wonder, Mainwaring," +he added cheerfully, "if he'd put you into it, too, and make your +eternal fortune." + +"With larks falling from the skies all round you, it's a pity YOU +couldn't get put into something," said Mrs. Bradley, straightening +her pretty brows. + +"I'm not a gold-miner, my dear," said Bradley, pleasantly. + +"Nor a gold-finder," returned his wife, with a cruel little +depression of her pink nostrils, "but you can work all night in +that stupid mill and then," she added in a low voice, to escape +Minty's attention, "spend the whole of the next day examining and +following up a boy's discovery that his own relations had been too +lazy and too ignorant to understand and profit by. I suppose that +next you will be hunting up a site on the OTHER SIDE of the Canyon, +where somebody else can put up a hotel and ruin your own prospects." + +A sensitive shadow of pain quickly dimmed Bradley's glance--not the +first or last time evidently, for it was gradually bringing out a +background of sadness in his intelligent eyes. But the next moment +he turned kindly to Mainwaring, and began to deplore the necessity +of his early departure, which Richardson had already made known to +him with practical and satisfying reasons. + +"I hope you won't forget, my dear fellow, that your most really +urgent business is to look after your health; and if, hereafter, +you'll only remember the old Lookout enough to impress that fact +upon you, I shall feel that any poor service I have rendered you +has been amply repaid." + +Mainwaring, notwithstanding that he winced slightly at this fateful +echo of Louise's advice, returned the grasp of his friend's hand +with an honest pressure equal to his own. He longed now only for +the coming of Richardson, to complete his scheme of grateful +benefaction to his host. + +The banker came fortunately as the conversation began to flag; and +Mrs. Bradley's half-coquettish ill-humor of a pretty woman, and +Louise's abstracted indifference, were becoming so noticeable as to +even impress Minty into a thoughtful taciturnity. The graciousness +of his reception by Mrs. Bradley somewhat restored his former +ostentatious gallantry, and his self-satisfied, domineering manner +had enough masculine power in it to favorably affect the three +women, who, it must be confessed, were a little bored by the finer +abstractions of Bradley and Mainwaring. After a few moments, +Mainwaring rose and, with a significant glance at Richardson to +remind him of his proposed conference with Bradley, turned to leave +the room. He was obliged to pass Louise, who was sitting by the +table. His attention was suddenly arrested by something in her +hand with which she was listlessly playing. It was the stone which +he had put on his letter to her. + +As he had not been present when Bradley arrived, he did not know +that this fateful object had been brought home by his host, who, +after receiving it from Richelieu, had put it in his pocket to +illustrate his story of the discovery. On the contrary, it seemed +that Louise's careless exposure of his foolish stratagem was +gratuitously and purposely cruel. Nevertheless, he stopped and +looked at her. + +"That's a queer stone you have there," he said, in a tone which she +recognized as coldly and ostentatiously civil. + +"Yes," she replied, without looking up; "it's the outcrop of that +mine." She handed it to him as if to obviate any further remark. +"I thought you had seen it before." + +"The outcrop," he repeated dryly. "That is--it--it--it is the +indication or sign of something important that's below it--isn't +it?" + +Louise shrugged her shoulders sceptically. "It don't follow. It's +just as likely to cover rubbish, after you've taken the trouble to +look." + +"Thanks," he said, with measured gentleness, and passed quietly out +of the room. + +The moon had already risen when Bradley, with his brierwood pipe, +preceded Richardson upon the veranda. The latter threw his large +frame into Louise's rocking-chair near the edge of the abyss; +Bradley, with his own chair tilted against the side of the house +after the national fashion, waited for him to speak. The absence +of Mainwaring and the stimulus of Mrs. Bradley's graciousness had +given the banker a certain condescending familiarity, which Bradley +received with amused and ironical tolerance that his twinkling eyes +made partly visible in the darkness. + +"One of the things I wanted to talk to you about, Bradley, was that +old affair of the advance you asked for from the Bank. We did not +quite see our way to it then, and, speaking as a business man, it +isn't really a matter of business now; but it has lately been put +to me in a light that would make the doing of it possible--you +understand? The fact of the matter is this: Sir Robert Mainwaring, +the father of the young fellow you've got in your house, is one of +our directors and largest shareholders, and I can tell you--if you +don't suspect it already--you've been lucky, Bradley--deucedly +lucky--to have had him in your house and to have rendered him a +service. He's the heir to one of the largest landed estates in his +country, one of the oldest county families, and will step into the +title some day. But, ahem!" he coughed patronizingly, "you knew +all that! No? Well, that charming wife of yours, at least, does; +for she's been talking about it. Gad, Bradley, it takes those +women to find out anything of that kind, eh?" + +The light in Bradley's eyes and his pipe went slowly out together. + +"Then we'll say that affair of the advance is as good as settled. +It's Sir Robert's wish, you understand, and this young fellow's +wish,--and if you'll come down to the Bank next week we'll arrange +it for you; I think you'll admit they're doing the handsome to you +and yours. And therefore," he lowered his voice confidentially, +"you'll see, Bradley, that it will only be the honorable thing in +you, you know, to look upon the affair as finished, and, in fact, +to do all you can"--he drew his chair closer--"to--to--to drop this +other foolishness." + +"I don't think I quite understand you!" said Bradley, slowly. + +"But your wife does, if you don't," returned Richardson, bluntly; +"I mean this foolish flirtation between Louise Macy and Mainwaring, +which is utterly preposterous. Why, man, it can't possibly come to +anything, and it couldn't be allowed for a moment. Look at his +position and hers. I should think, as a practical man, it would +strike you--" + +"Only one thing strikes me, Richardson," interrupted Bradley, in a +singularly distinct whisper, rising, and moving nearer the speaker; +"it is that you're sitting perilously near the edge of this +veranda. For, by the living God, if you don't take yourself out of +that chair and out of this house, I won't be answerable for the +consequences!" + +"Hold on there a minute, will you?" said Mainwaring's voice from +the window. + +Both men turned towards it. A long leg was protruding from +Mainwaring's window; it was quickly followed by the other leg and +body of the occupant, and the next moment Mainwaring come towards +the two men, with his hands in his pockets. + +"Not so loud," he said, looking towards the house. + +"Let that man go," said Bradley, in a repressed voice. "You and I, +Mainwaring, can speak together afterwards." + +"That man must stay until he hears what I have got to say," said +Mainwaring, stepping between them. He was very white and grave in +the moonlight, but very quiet; and he did not take his hands from +his pockets. "I've listened to what he said because he came here +on MY business, which was simply to offer to do you a service. +That was all, Bradley, that I told him to do. This rot about what +he expects of you in return is his own impertinence. If you'd +punched his head when he began it, it would have been all right. +But since he has begun it, before he goes I think he ought to hear +me tell you that I have already OFFERED myself to Miss Macy, and +she has REFUSED me! If she had given me the least encouragement, I +should have told you before. Further, I want to say that, in spite +of that man's insinuations, I firmly believe that no one is aware +of the circumstance except Miss Macy and myself." + +"I had no idea of intimating that anything had happened that was +not highly honorable and creditable to you and the young lady," +began Richardson hurriedly. + +"I don't know that it was necessary for you to have any ideas on +the subject at all," said Mainwaring, sternly; "nor that, having +been shown how you have insulted this gentleman and myself, you +need trouble us an instant longer with your company. You need not +come back. I will manage my other affairs myself." + +"Very well, Mr. Mainwaring--but--you may be sure that I shall +certainly take the first opportunity to explain myself to Sir +Robert," returned Richardson as, with an attempt at dignity, he +strode away. + +There was an interval of silence. + +"Don't be too hard upon a fellow, Bradley," said Mainwaring as +Bradley remained dark and motionless in the shadow. "It is a poor +return I'm making you for your kindness, but I swear I never +thought of anything like--like--this." + +"Nor did I," said Bradley, bitterly. + +"I know it, and that's what makes it so infernally bad for me. +Forgive me, won't you? Think of me, old fellow, as the wretchedest +ass you ever met, but not such a cad as this would make me!" As +Mainwaring stepped out from the moonlight towards him with extended +hand, Bradley grasped it warmly. + +"Thanks--there--thanks, old fellow! And, Bradley--I say--don't say +anything to your wife, for I don't think she knows it. And, +Bradley--look here--I didn't like to be anything but plain before +that fellow; but I don't mind telling YOU, now that it's all over, +that I really think Louise--Miss Macy--didn't altogether understand +me either." + +With another shake of the hand they separated for the night. For a +long time after Mainwaring had gone, Bradley remained gazing +thoughtfully into the Great Canyon. He thought of the time when he +had first come there, full of life and enthusiasm, making an ideal +world of his pure and wholesome eyrie on the ledge. What else he +thought will, probably, never be known until the misunderstanding +of honorable and chivalrous men by a charming and illogical sex +shall incite the audacious pen of some more daring romancer. + +When he returned to the house, he said kindly to his wife, "I have +been thinking to-day about your hotel scheme, and I shall write to +Sacramento to-night to accept that capitalist's offer." + + +CHAPTER V. + + +The sun was just rising. In two years of mutation and change it +had seen the little cottage clinging like a swallow's nest to the +rocky caves of a great Sierran canyon give way to a straggling, +many-galleried hotel, and a dozen blackened chimneys rise above the +barren tableland where once had stood the lonely forge. To that +conservative orb of light and heat there must have been a peculiar +satisfaction in looking down a few hours earlier upon the +battlements and gables of Oldenhurst, whose base was deeply +embedded in the matured foundations and settled traditions of an +English county. For the rising sun had for ten centuries found +Oldenhurst in its place, from the heavy stone terrace that covered +the dead-and-forgotten wall, where a Roman sentinel had once paced, +to the little grating in the cloistered quadrangle, where it had +seen a Cistercian brother place the morning dole. It had daily +welcomed the growth of this vast and picturesque excrescence of the +times; it had smiled every morning upon this formidable yet quaint +incrustation of power and custom, ignoring, as Oldenhurst itself +had ignored, the generations who possessed it, the men who built +it, the men who carried it with fire and sword, the men who had +lied and cringed for it, the King who had given it to a favorite, +the few brave hearts who had died for it in exile, and the one or +two who had bought and paid for it. For Oldenhurst had absorbed +all these and more until it had become a story of the past, +incarnate in stone, greenwood, and flower; it had even drained the +life-blood from adjacent hamlets, repaying them with tumuli growths +like its own, in the shape of purposeless lodges, quaintly +incompetent hospitals and schools, and churches where the +inestimable blessing and knowledge of its gospel were taught and +fostered. Nor had it dealt more kindly with the gentry within its +walls, sending some to the scaffold, pillorying others in infamous +office, reducing a few to poverty, and halting its later guests +with gout and paralysis. It had given them in exchange the dubious +immortality of a portrait gallery, from which they stared with +stony and equal resignation; it had preserved their useless armor +and accoutrements; it had set up their marble effigies in churches +or laid them in cross-legged attitudes to trip up the unwary, until +in death, as in life, they got between the congregation and the +Truth that was taught there. It had allowed an Oldenhurst +crusader, with a broken nose like a pugilist, on the strength of +his having been twice to the Holy Land, to hide the beautifully +illuminated Word from the lowlier worshipper on the humbler +benches; it had sent an iconoclastic Bishop of the Reformation +to a nearer minster to ostentatiously occupy the place of the +consecrated image he had overthrown. Small wonder that crowding +the Oldenhurst retainers gradually into smaller space, with +occasional Sabbath glimpses of the living rulers of Oldenhurst +already in railed-off exaltation, it had forced them to accept +Oldenhurst as a synonym of eternity, and left the knowledge of a +higher Power to what time they should be turned out to their longer +sleep under the tender grass of the beautiful outer churchyard. + +And even so, while every stone of the pile of Oldenhurst and every +tree in its leafy park might have been eloquent with the story of +vanity, selfishness, and unequal justice, it had been left to the +infinite mercy of Nature to seal their lips with a spell of beauty +that left mankind equally dumb; earth, air, and moisture had +entered into a gentle conspiracy to soften, mellow, and clothe its +external blemishes of breach and accident, its irregular design, +its additions, accretions, ruins, and lapses with a harmonious +charm of outline and color; poets, romancers, and historians had +equally conspired to illuminate the dark passages and uglier +inconsistencies of its interior life with the glamour of their own +fancy. The fragment of menacing keep, with its choked oubliettes, +became a bower of tender ivy; the grim story of its crimes, +properly edited by a contemporary bard of the family, passed into a +charming ballad. Even the superstitious darkness of its religious +house had escaped through fallen roof and shattered wall, leaving +only the foliated and sun-pierced screen of front, with its rose- +window and pinnacle of cross behind. Pilgrims from all lands had +come to see it; fierce Republicans had crossed the seas to gaze at +its mediaeval outlines, and copy them in wood and stucco on their +younger soil. Politicians had equally pointed to it as a +convincing evidence of their own principles and in refutation of +each other; and it had survived both. For it was this belief in +its own perpetuity that was its strength and weakness. And that +belief was never stronger than on this bright August morning, when +it was on the verge of dissolution. A telegram brought to Sir +Robert Mainwaring had even then as completely shattered and +disintegrated Oldenhurst, in all it was and all it meant, as if +the brown-paper envelope had been itself charged with the electric +fluid. + +Sir Robert Mainwaring, whose family had for three centuries +possessed Oldenhurst, had received the news of his financial ruin; +and the vast pile which had survived the repeated invasion of +superstition, force, intrigue, and even progress, had succumbed to +a foe its founders and proprietors had loftily ignored and left to +Jews and traders. The acquisition of money, except by despoilment, +gift, royal favor, or inheritance, had been unknown at Oldenhurst. +The present degenerate custodian of its fortunes, staggering under +the weight of its sentimental mortmain already alluded to, had +speculated in order to keep up its material strength, that was +gradually shrinking through impoverished land and the ruined trade +it had despised. He had invested largely in California mines, and +was the chief shareholder in a San Francisco Bank. But the mines +had proved worthless, the Bank had that morning suspended payment, +owing to the failure of a large land and timber company on the +Sierras which it had imprudently "carried." The spark which had +demolished Oldenhurst had been fired from the new telegraph-station +in the hotel above the great Sierran canyon. + +There was a large house-party at Oldenhurst that morning. But it +had been a part of the history of the Mainwarings to accept defeat +gallantly and as became their blood. Sir Percival,--the second +gentleman on the left as you entered the library,--unhorsed, dying +on a distant moor, with a handful of followers, abandoned by a +charming Prince and a miserable cause, was scarcely a greater hero +than this ruined but undaunted gentleman of eighty, entering the +breakfast-room a few hours later as jauntily as his gout would +permit, and conscientiously dispensing the hospitalities of his +crumbling house. When he had arranged a few pleasure parties for +the day and himself thoughtfully anticipated the different tastes +of his guests, he turned to Lady Mainwaring. + +"Don't forget that somebody ought to go to the station to meet the +Bradleys. Frank writes from St. Moritz that they are due here +to-day." + +Lady Mainwaring glanced quickly at her husband, and said sotto +voce, "Do you think they'll care to come NOW? They probably have +heard all about it." + +"Not how it affects me," returned Sir Robert, in the same tone; +"and as they might think that because Frank was with them on that +California mountain we would believe it had something to do with +Richardson involving the Bank in that wretched company, we must +really INSIST upon their coming." + +"Bradley!" echoed the Hon. Captain FitzHarry, overhearing the name +during a late forage on the sideboard, "Bradley!--there was an +awfully pretty American at Biarritz, travelling with a cousin, I +think--a Miss Mason or Macy. Those sort of people, you know, who +have a companion as pretty as themselves; bring you down with the +other barrel if one misses--eh? Very clever, both of them, and +hardly any accent." + +"Mr. Bradley was a very dear friend of Frank's, and most kind to +him," said Lady Mainwaring, gravely. + +"Didn't know there WAS a Mr. Bradley, really. He didn't come to +the fore, then," said the unabashed Captain. "Deuced hard to +follow up those American husbands!" + +"And their wives wouldn't thank you, if you did," said Lady +Griselda Armiger, with a sweet smile. + +"If it is the Mrs. Bradley I mean," said Lady Canterbridge from the +lower end of the table, looking up from her letter, "who looks a +little like Mrs. Summertree, and has a pretty cousin with her who +has very good frocks, I'm afraid you won't be able to get her down +here. She's booked with engagements for the next six weeks. She +and her cousin made all the running at Grigsby Royal, and she has +quite deposed that other American beauty in Northforeland's good +graces. She regularly affiche'd him, and it is piteous to see him +follow her about. No, my dear; I don't believe they'll come to any +one of less rank than a Marquis. If they did, I'm sure Canterbridge +would have had them at Buckenthorpe already." + +"I wonder if there was ever anything in Frank's admiration of this +Miss Macy?" said Lady Mainwaring a few moments later, lingering +beside her husband in his study. + +"I really don't know," said Sir Robert, abstractedly: "his letters +were filled with her praises, and Richardson thought--" + +"Pray don't mention that man's name again," said Lady Mainwaring, +with the first indication of feeling she had shown. "I shouldn't +trust him." + +"But why do you ask?" returned her husband. + +Lady Mainwaring was silent for a moment. "She is very rich, I +believe," she said slowly. "At least, Frank writes that some +neighbors of theirs whom he met in the Engadine told him they had +sold the site of that absurd cottage where he was ill for some +extravagant sum." + +"My dear Geraldine," said the old man, affectionately, taking his +wife's hand in his own, that now for the first time trembled, "if +you have any hope based upon what you are thinking of now, let it +be the last and least. You forget that Paget told us that with the +best care he could scarcely ensure Frank's return to perfect +health. Even if God in his mercy spared him long enough to take my +place, what girl would be willing to tie herself to a man doomed to +sickness and poverty? Hardly the one you speak of, my dear." + +Lady Canterbridge proved a true prophet. Mrs. Bradley and Miss +Macy did not come, regretfully alleging a previous engagement made +on the continent with the Duke of Northforeland and the Marquis of +Dungeness; but the unexpected and apocryphal husband DID arrive. +"I myself have not seen my wife and cousin since I returned from my +visit to your son in Switzerland. I am glad they were able to +amuse themselves without waiting for me at a London hotel, though I +should have preferred to have met them here." Sir Robert and Lady +Mainwaring were courteous but slightly embarrassed. Lady +Canterbridge, who had come to the station in bored curiosity, +raised her clear blue eyes to his. He did not look like a fool, a +complaisant or fashionably-cynical husband--this well-dressed, +well-mannered, but quietly and sympathetically observant man. Did +he really care for his selfish wife? was it perfect trust or some +absurd Transatlantic custom? She did not understand him. It +wearied her and she turned her eyes indifferently away. Bradley, a +little irritated, he knew not why, at the scrutiny of this tall, +handsome, gentlemanly-looking woman, who, however, in spite of her +broad shoulders and narrow hips possessed a refined muliebrity +superior to mere womanliness of outline, turned slightly towards +Sir Robert. "Lady Canterbridge, Frank's cousin," explained Sir +Robert, hesitatingly, as if conscious of some vague awkwardness. +Bradley and Lady Canterbridge both bowed,--possibly the latter's +salutation was the most masculine,--and Bradley, eventually +forgetting her presence, plunged into an earnest, sympathetic, and +intelligent account of the condition in which he found the invalid +at St. Moritz. The old man at first listened with an almost +perfunctory courtesy and a hesitating reserve; but as Bradley was +lapsing into equal reserve and they drove up to the gates of the +quadrangle, he unexpectedly warmed with a word or two of serious +welcome. Looking up with a half-unconscious smile, Bradley met +Lady Canterbridge's examining eyes. + +The next morning, finding an opportunity to be alone with him, +Bradley, with a tactful mingling of sympathy and directness informed +his host that he was cognizant of the disaster that had overtaken +the Bank, and delicately begged him to accept any service he could +render him. "Pardon me," he said, "if I speak as plainly to you as +I would to your son: my friendship for him justifies an equal +frankness to any one he loves; but I should not intrude upon your +confidence if I did not believe that my knowledge and assistance +might be of benefit to you. Although I did not sell my lands to +Richardson or approve of his methods," he continued, "I fear it was +some suggestion of mine that eventually induced him to form the +larger and more disastrous scheme that ruined the Bank. So you see," +he added lightly, "I claim a right to offer you my services." +Touched by Bradley's sincerity and discreet intelligence, Sir Robert +was equally frank. During the recital of his Californian +investments--a chronicle of almost fatuous speculation and imbecile +enterprise--Bradley was profoundly moved at the naive ignorance of +business and hopeless ingenuousness of this old habitue of a cynical +world and an intriguing and insincere society, to whom no scheme +had been too wild for acceptance. As Bradley listened with a +half-saddened smile to the grave visions of this aged enthusiast, +he remembered the son's unsophisticated simplicity: what he had +considered as the "boyishness" of immaturity was the taint of the +utterly unpractical Mainwaring blood. It was upon this blood, and +others like it, that Oldenhurst had for centuries waxed and +fattened. + +Bradley was true to his promise of assistance, and with the aid of +two or three of his brother-millionaires, whose knowledge of the +resources of the locality was no less powerful and convincing than +the security of their actual wealth, managed to stay the immediate +action of the catastrophe until the affairs of the Sierran Land and +Timber Company could be examined and some plan of reconstruction +arranged. + +During this interval of five months, in which the credit of Sir +Robert Mainwaring was preserved with the secret of his disaster, +Bradley was a frequent and welcome visitor to Oldenhurst. Apart +from his strange and chivalrous friendship for the Mainwarings-- +which was as incomprehensible to Sir Robert as Sir Robert's equally +eccentric and Quixotic speculations had been to Bradley--he began +to feel a singular and weird fascination for the place. A patient +martyr in the vast London house he had taken for his wife and +cousin's amusement, he loved to escape the loneliness of its autumn +solitude or the occasional greater loneliness of his wife's social +triumphs. The handsome, thoughtful man who sometimes appeared at +the foot of his wife's table or melted away like a well-bred ghost +in the hollow emptiness of her brilliant receptions, piqued the +languid curiosity of a few. A distinguished personage, known for +his tactful observance of convenances that others forgot, had made +a point of challenging this gentlemanly apparition, and had +followed it up with courteous civilities, which led to exchange of +much respect but no increase of acquaintance. He had even spent a +week at Buckenthorpe, with Canterbridge in the coverts and Lady +Canterbridge in the music-room and library. He had returned more +thoughtful, and for some time after was more frequent in his +appearances at home, and more earnest in his renewed efforts to +induce his wife to return to America with him. + +"You'll never be happy anywhere but in California, among those +common people," she replied; "and while I was willing to share your +poverty THERE," she added dryly, "I prefer to share your wealth +among civilized ladies and gentlemen. Besides," she continued, "we +must consider Louise. She is as good as engaged to Lord Dunshunner, +and I do not intend that you shall make a mess of her affairs here +as you did in California." + +It was the first time he had heard of Lord Dunshunner's proposals; +it was the first allusion she had ever made to Louise and +Mainwaring. + +Meantime, the autumn leaves had fallen silently over the broad +terraces of Oldenhurst with little changes to the fortunes of the +great house itself. The Christmas house-party included Lady +Canterbridge, whose husband was still detained at Homburg in +company with Dunshunner; and Bradley, whose wife and cousin +lingered on the continent. He was slightly embarrassed when Lady +Canterbridge turned to him one afternoon as they were returning +from the lake and congratulated him abruptly upon Louise's +engagement. + +"Perhaps you don't care to be congratulated," she said, as he did +not immediately respond, "and you had as little to do with it as +with that other? It is a woman's function." + +"What other?" echoed Bradley. + +Lady Canterbridge slightly turned her handsome head towards him as +she walked unbendingly at his side. "Tell me how you manage to +keep your absolute simplicity so fresh. Do you suppose it wasn't +known at Oldenhurst that Frank had quite compromised himself with +Miss Macy over there?" + +"It certainly was not known 'over there,'" said Bradley, curtly. + +"Don't be angry with me." + +Such an appeal from the tall, indifferent woman at his side, so +confidently superior to criticism, and uttered in a low tone, made +him smile, albeit uneasily. + +"I only meant to congratulate you," she continued carelessly. +"Dunshunner is not a bad sort of fellow, and will come into a good +property some day. And then, society is so made up of caprice, +just now, that it is well for your wife's cousin to make the most +of her opportunities while they last. She is very popular now; but +next season--" Seeing that Bradley remained silent, she did not +finish the sentence, but said with her usual abruptness, "Do you +know a Miss Araminta Eulalie Sharpe?" + +Bradley started. Could any one recognize honest Minty in the +hopeless vulgarity which this fine lady had managed to carelessly +import into her name? His eye kindled. + +"She is an old friend of mine, Lady Canterbridge." + +"How fortunate! Then I can please you by giving you good news of +her. She is the coming sensation. They say she is very rich, but +quite one of the people, you know: in fact, she makes no scruples +of telling you her father was a blacksmith, I think, and takes the +dear old man with her everywhere. FitzHarry raves about her, and +says her naivete is something too delicious. She is regularly in +with some of the best people already. Lady Dungeness has taken her +up, and Northforeland is only waiting for your cousin's engagement +to be able to go over decently. Shall I ask her to Buckenthorpe?-- +come, now, as an apology for my rudeness to your cousin?" She was +very womanly now in spite of her high collar, her straight back, +and her tightly-fitting jacket, as she stood there smiling. +Suddenly, her smile faded; she drew her breath in quickly. + +She had caught a glimpse of his usually thoughtful face and eyes, +now illuminated with some pleasant memory. + +"Thank you," he said smilingly, yet with a certain hesitation, as +he thought of The Lookout and Araminta Eulalie Sharpe, and tried to +reconcile them with the lady before him. "I should like it very +much." + +"Then you have known Miss Sharpe a long time?" continued Lady +Canterbridge as they walked on. + +"While we were at The Lookout she was our nearest neighbor." + +"And I suppose your wife will consider it quite proper for you to +see her again at my house?" said Lady Canterbridge, with a return +of conventional levity. + +"Oh! quite," said Bradley. + +They had reached the low Norman-arched side-entrance to the +quadrangle. As Bradley swung open the bolt-studded oaken door to +let her pass, she said carelessly,-- + +"Then you are not coming in now?" + +"No; I shall walk a little longer." + +"And I am quite forgiven?" + +"I am thanking you very much," he said, smiling directly into her +blue eyes. She lowered them, and vanished into the darkness of the +passage. + +The news of Minty's success was further corroborated by Sir Robert, +who later that evening called Bradley into the study. "Frank has +been writing from Nice that he has renewed his acquaintance with +some old Californian friends of yours--a Mr. and Miss Sharpe. Lady +Canterbridge says that they are well known in London to some of our +friends, but I would like to ask you something about them. Lady +Mainwaring was on the point of inviting them here when I received a +letter from Mr. Sharpe asking for a BUSINESS interview. Pray who +is this Sharpe?" + +"You say he writes for a BUSINESS interview?" asked Bradley. + +"Yes." + +Bradley hesitated for a moment and then said quietly, "Perhaps, +then, I am justified in a breach of confidence to him, in order to +answer your question. He is the man who has assumed all the +liabilities of the Sierran Land and Timber Company to enable the +Bank to resume payment. But he did it on the condition that you +were never to know it. For the rest, he was a blacksmith who made +a fortune, as Lady Canterbridge will tell you." + +"How very odd--how kind, I mean. I should like to have been civil +to him on Frank's account alone." + +"I should see him on business and be civil to him afterwards." Sir +Robert received the American's levity with his usual seriousness. + +"No, they must come here for Christmas. His daughter is--?" + +"Araminta Eulalie Sharpe," said Bradley, in defiant memory of Lady +Canterbridge. + +Sir Robert winced audibly. "I shall rely on you, my dear boy, to +help me make it pleasant for them," he said. + +Christmas came, but not Minty. It drew a large contingent from +Oldenhurst to the quaint old church, who came to view the green- +wreathed monuments, and walls spotted with crimson berries, as if +with the blood of former Oldenhurst warriors, and to impress the +wondering villagers with the ineffable goodness and bounty of the +Creator towards the Lords of Oldenhurst and their friends. Sir +Robert, a little gouty, kept the house, and Bradley, somewhat +uneasy at the Sharpes' absence, but more distrait with other +thoughts, wandered listlessly in the long library. At the lower +angle it was embayed into the octagon space of a former tower, +which was furnished as a quaint recess for writing or study, +pierced through its enormous walls with a lance-shaped window, +hidden by heavy curtains. He was gazing abstractedly at the +melancholy eyes of Sir Percival, looking down from the dark panel +opposite, when he heard the crisp rustle of a skirt. Lady +Canterbridge tightly and stiffly buttoned in black from her long +narrow boots to her slim, white-collared neck, stood beside him +with a prayer-book in her ungloved hand. Bradley colored quickly; +the penetrating incense of the Christmas boughs and branches that +decked the walls and ceilings, mingled with some indefinable +intoxicating aura from the woman at his side, confused his senses. +He seemed to be losing himself in some forgotten past coeval with +the long, quaintly-lighted room, the rich hangings, and the painted +ancestor of this handsome woman. He recovered himself with an +effort, and said, + +"You are going to church?" + +"I may meet them coming home; it's all the same. You like HIM?" +she said abruptly, pointing to the portrait. "I thought you did +not care for that sort of man over there." + +"A man like that must have felt the impotence of his sacrifice +before he died, and that condoned everything," said Bradley, +thoughtfully. + +"Then you don't think him a fool? Bob says it was a fair bargain +for a title and an office, and that by dying he escaped trial and +the confiscation of what he had." + +Bradley did not reply. + +"I am disturbing your illusions again. Yet I rather like them. I +think you are quite capable of a sacrifice--perhaps you know what +it is already." + +He felt that she was looking at him; he felt equally that he could +not respond with a commonplace. He was silent. + +"I have offended you again, Mr. Bradley," she said. "Please be +Christian, and pardon me. You know this is a season of peace and +goodwill." She raised her blue eyes at the same moment to the +Christmas decorations on the ceiling. They were standing before +the parted drapery of the lance window. Midway between the arched +curtains hung a spray of mistletoe--the conceit of a mischievous +housemaid. Their eyes met it simultaneously. + +Bradley had Lady Canterbridge's slim, white hand in his own. The +next moment voices were heard in the passage, and the door nearly +opposite to them opened deliberately. The idea of their apparent +seclusion and half compromising attitude flashed through the minds +of both at the same time. Lady Canterbridge stepped quickly +backward, drawing Bradley with her, into the embrasure of the +window; the folds of the curtain swung together and concealed them +from view. + +The door had been opened by the footman, ushering in a broad- +shouldered man, who was carrying a travelling-bag and an umbrella +in his hand. Dropping into an arm-chair before the curtain, he +waved away the footman, who, even now, mechanically repeated a +previously vain attempt to relieve the stranger of his luggage. + +"You leave that 'ere grip sack where it is, young man, and tell Sir +Robert Mainwaring that Mr. Demander Sharpe, of Californy, wishes to +see him--on business--on BUSINESS, do ye' hear? You hang onter +that sentence--on BUSINESS! it's about ez much ez you kin carry, I +reckon, and leave that grip sack alone." + +From behind the curtain Bradley made a sudden movement to go +forward; but Lady Canterbridge--now quite pale but collected-- +restrained him with a warning movement of her hand. Sir Robert's +stick and halting step were next heard along the passage, and he +entered the room. His simple and courteous greeting of the +stranger was instantly followed by a renewed attack upon the "grip +sack," and a renewed defence of it by the stranger. + +"No, Sir Robert," said the voice argumentatively, "this yer's a +BUSINESS interview, and until it's over--if YOU please--we'll +remain ez we air. I'm Demander Sharpe, of Californy, and I and my +darter, Minty, oncet had the pleasure of knowing your boy over +thar, and of meeting him agin the other day at Nice." + +"I think," said Sir Robert's voice gently, "that these are not the +only claims you have upon me. I have only a day or two ago heard +from Mr. Bradley that I owe to your generous hands and your +disinterested liberality the saving of my California fortune." + +There was the momentary sound of a pushed-back chair, a stamping of +feet, and then Mr. Sharpe's voice rose high with the blacksmith's +old querulous aggrieved utterance + +"So it's that finikin', conceited Bradley agin--that's giv' me +away! Ef that man's all-fired belief in his being the Angel +Gabriel and Dan'l Webster rolled inter one don't beat anythin'! I +suppose that high-flyin' jay-bird kalkilated to put you and me and +my gal and yer boy inter harness for his four hoss chariot and he +sittin' kam on the box drivin' us! Why don't he tend to his own +business, and look arter his own concerns--instead o' leaving Jinny +Bradley and Loo Macy dependent on Kings and Queens and titled folks +gen'rally, and he, Jim Bradley, philanderin' with another man's +wife--while that thar man is hard at work tryin' to make a honest +livin' fer his wife, buckin' agin faro an' the tiger gen'rally at +Monaco! Eh? And that man a-inter-meddlin' with me! Ef," +continued the voice, dropped to a tone of hopeless moral +conviction, "ef there's a man I mor'aly despise--it's that finikin' +Jim Bradley." + +"You quite misunderstand me, my dear sir," said Sir Robert's +hurried voice; "he told me you had pledged him to secrecy, and he +only revealed it to explain why you wished to see me." + +There was a grunt of half-placated wrath from Sharpe, and then the +voice resumed, but more deliberately, "Well, to come back to +business: you've got a boy, Francis, and I've got a darter, +Araminty. They've sorter taken a shine to each other and they want +to get married. Mind yer--wait a moment!--it wasn't allus so. No, +sir; when my gal Araminty first seed your boy in Californy she was +poor, and she didn't kalkilate to get inter anybody's family +unbeknownst or on sufferance. Then she got rich and you got poor; +and then--hold on a minit!--she allows, does my girl, that there +ain't any nearer chance o' their making a match than they were +afore, for she isn't goin' to hev it said that she married your son +fur the chance of some day becomin' Lady Mainwaring." + +"One moment, Mr. Sharpe," said the voice of the Baronet, gravely: +"I am both flattered and pained by what I believe to be the kindly +object of your visit. Indeed, I may say I have gathered a +suspicion of what might be the sequel of this most unhappy +acquaintance of my son and your daughter; but I cannot believe that +he has kept you in ignorance of his unfortunate prospects and his +still more unfortunate state of health." + +"When I told ye to hold on a minit," continued the blacksmith's +voice, with a touch of querulousness in its accent, "that was jist +wot I was comin' to. I knowed part of it from my own pocket, she +knowed the rest of it from his lip and the doctors she interviewed. +And then she says to me--sez my girl Minty--Pop,' she sez, 'he's +got nothing to live for now but his title, and that he never may +live to get, so that I think ye kin jist go, Pop, and fairly and +squarely, as a honest man, ask his father to let me hev him.' +Them's my darter's own words, Sir Robert, and when I tell yer that +she's got a million o' dollars to back them, ye'll know she means +business, every time." + +"Did Francis know that you were coming here?" + +"Bless ye, no! he don't know that she would have him. Ef it kem to +that, he ain't even asked her! She wouldn't let him until she was +sure of YOU." + +"Then you mean to say there is no engagement?" + +"In course not. I reckoned to do the square thing first with ye." + +The halting step of the Baronet crossing the room was heard +distinctly. He had stopped beside Sharpe. "My dear Mr. Sharpe," +he said, in a troubled voice, "I cannot permit this sacrifice. It +is too--too great!" + +"Then," said Sharpe' s voice querulously, "I'm afraid we must do +without your permission. I didn't reckon to find a sort o' British +Jim Bradley in you. If YOU can't permit my darter to sacrifice +herself by marryin' your son, I can't permit her to sacrifice her +love and him by NOT marryin' him. So I reckon this yer interview +is over." + +"I am afraid we are both old fools, Mr. Sharpe; but--we will talk +this over with Lady Mainwaring. Come--" There was evidently a +slight struggle near the chair over some inanimate object. But the +next moment the Baronet's voice rose, persuasively, "Really, I must +insist upon relieving you of your bag and umbrella." + +"Well, if you'll let me telegraph 'yes' to Minty, I don't care if +yer do." + +When the room was quiet again, Lady Canterbridge and James Bradley +silently slipped from the curtain, and, without a word, separated +at the door. + + +There was a merry Christmas at Oldenhurst and at Nice. But whether +Minty's loving sacrifice was accepted or not, or whether she ever +reigned as Lady Mainwaring, or lived an untitled widow, I cannot +say. But as Oldenhurst still exists in all its pride and power, it +is presumed that the peril that threatened its fortunes was +averted, and that if another heroine was not found worthy of a +frame in its picture-gallery, at least it had been sustained as of +old by devotion and renunciation. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Etext A Phyllis of the Sierras, by Bret Harte + diff --git a/old/apots10.zip b/old/apots10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..974e3fd --- /dev/null +++ b/old/apots10.zip |